


Entice

by Rheehemoth



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence, Mission Fic, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Post-War, Sexual Content, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:34:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 50,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6382126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rheehemoth/pseuds/Rheehemoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inuzuka Kiba is given the mission to be the bodyguard of a local singer, Misaki who has a secret that is darker than shadow. As he slowly unravels the mystery, he finds that he's falling for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Collision

**Chapter 1 - Collision**

* * *

It had been a long day of training for Inuzuka Kiba and his companion, Akamaru. They were both tired and all they wanted to do was go home and relax, but unfortunately, one of the Godaime Hokage's personal ANBU had summoned them to her office. It seemed that something was going on. More than likely, Tsunade-sama simply had a mission for them, and he would just have to accept it and then they could go home.

Currently, they were both heading towards the large, red building, and it was just coming into sight. Since they were just strolling casually, both man and dog got there in a few minutes and walked up the stairs to the level which the Hokage's office was on and stood in front of the door. Kiba knocked respectfully, and heard a firm, female voice from behind the door, permitting him entry.

He turned the door knob and walked in, letting Akamaru come in as well. Akamaru, as usual trotted over to the blonde woman and said a special hello to her, in other words licking her hand until she pet him, which as serious and scary as she could be sometimes, it always managed to at least make her smirk.

Tsunade turned to Kiba after patting the large ninken, who decided to sit down right next to her chair and put his head in her lap.

"Kiba, you have a mission. It's pretty routine, just a simple bodyguard job. I'm sure you've heard of the local singer, Misaki who lives around here, but performs in a large city called Sozoku several hours away." she asked with an upward inflection and continued when he nodded once in confirmation. "Well, she actually lives in Konoha and her manager has asked that we assign her a bodyguard because she was mugged recently and the city she performs in has quite the criminal reputation."

"When do I start?" he asked simply, almost wanting to roll his eyes. He was a jonin ranked shinobi, as of a month after his 20th birthday when he passed the exams with flying colours.

"Tomorrow in the late afternoon. Shouldn't be any problems, but I thought I'd assign you since you haven't been out of the village in a while." Tsunade said, trying desperately to keep a professional attitude while Akamaru was looking up at her, just begging her to pat him. "Here's all the information you need."

He walked up to her desk and took the mission information from her outstretched hand, and thanked her before calling Akamaru and heading out the door. When he got home, to his two bedroom apartment that he'd been living in for some time now, he sat down on the couch after grabbing a cold beer from the fridge, and filling up Akamaru's water bowl, which he noticed was nearly empty.

After reading through the information, he sighed, half glad to get out of the village but half bummed out that he had such a lame mission to do. Misaki was only this woman's stage name, but it didn't say what her real name was anywhere on the mission file. Without thinking much of it, he placed the mission file on his desk in his room and showered.

When he got out of the shower, he looked in the mirror and saw the scar that ran across his chest. The scar he got from fighting against Madara's huge army that he had managed to put together to go up against the largest and strongest force the shinobi world had ever known; The Allied Villages.

Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure and some of the other smaller hidden villages had all come together in a time of great need and had eventually won the war that had lasted a whole 8 months, and in that time, there was more death, destruction, famine and chaos than in the previous Great Shinobi Wars. Mostly, it was thanks to a single shinobi who had managed to come up with an almost flawless plan and use their jutsu that was some sort of shadow camouflaging technique that allowed her to take down enough enemy shinobi to let an ANBU force that specialised in infiltration behind enemy lines to break through and therefore let the Allied force gain the upper hand.

Kiba had gotten his scar from attempting to fight against two very strong ninja, who wore hitai-ite that he didn't even recognise. It seemed that Madara had gone to some huge lengths to get strong, but unknown shinobi from villages so far away that not even the five biggest hidden villages knew that they existed. The scar was about eight inches long and a few millimetres wide. One of the ninja had managed to get him while he was recovering from using Gatsuga which had taken care of the other shinobi, and cut him with their ninjato.

The Inuzuka had no doubt that without that unknown female shinobi that had healed him just enough to stop the haemorrhaging and closed up the wound enough so that he would survive long enough to get out of the front lines, he wouldn't be here.

He remembered what happened, even though it was a bit hazy and his hand unconsciously rubbed the scar as he recalled that very day.

_The shinobi had just sliced him open, and he had winced in pain, but fought on, the adrenalin dulling the pain that much that he didn't realise how serious his wound was. It hadn't taken him long to manage getting the last ninja off balance with his taijutsu and had slashed his throat with a kunai._

_When he'd finally stopped fighting, he finally felt the blood running down his chest and stomach and nearly passed out straight after from how serious the blood loss already was. He looked down and saw that the blood was dripping onto the ground, onto his pants and also onto Akamaru who was sitting in front of him, whimpering because he knew Kiba was hurt, and badly._

_A moment later, a shinobi dropped down from the trees on the other side of the clearing. He could tell straight away that it was a woman from the smaller frame, and her clothing. She was wearing all black and was wearing a mask that was similar to an ANBU one, but not similar enough for him to assume that she was ANBU._

_She turned to look at him instantly, and both him and Akamaru took up a defensive stance but relaxed a bit when she lifted up her shirt just enough for them both to see the Konoha hitai-ite that was sitting on her hip, but didn't even consider dropping their guard._

_As the mysterious shinobi got closer, she held up two fingers and let them glow green with medical chakra. Kiba knew that someone with medical abilities could kill you with a single touch, but he couldn't feel any killing or malicious intent from her, nor could he smell the unconscious sweat that everyone got when they were deceiving someone. He nodded once and she continued towards him._

_Before she tended to him, she went straight to Akamaru who had a few grazes and cuts. This made Kiba worry more, since he'd much prefer himself getting hurt than Akamaru, but when he noticed the injuries closing up and the pain in the ninkens eyes fading, he began to trust her more and was secretly glad that she had helped Akamaru first. It only took her a minute to heal the large dog, and he licked her hand in thanks when she was finished, and she quickly scratched behind his ear before moving over to him._

_He watched her grey eyes through the mask and noticed that she widened her eyes a little after seeing the extent of the wound after lifting his shirt up. Blood was pouring from the wound, and his whole front was just covered with the red viscous liquid and it didn't take him long to get dizzy and nearly fall over, but the woman caught him and eased him to a seated position against a tree._

_Immediately, she began healing his wound. She still hadn't spoken, and hadn't even made a sound at all. He could only hear her breathing now because he was so close and his hearing was so good. This shinobi was clearly strong and she was also a pretty decent medic. He could feel the flow of blood lessening, and he was feeling much less dizzy within a few moments._

_Finally, she spoke after continuing for a minute or two. "I can't completely you right now, but you should be well enough to get off the front lines. I'd leave immediately before any enemy shinobi come this way." she_ _recommended with a very quiet and soft voice that sounded almost heavenly to his ears in contrast with the sounds of battle, and he nodded knowing that if he did try to keep fighting, he would end up dying._

" _Thank you." he said just as quietly and she helped him to his feet before he called to Akamaru and they headed back towards safety..._

It was nearly 9.30PM by the time he was tired enough to go to sleep, and Akamaru had already curled up at the end of his bed and was sleeping soundly by the time he climbed in, and soon fell asleep as well...

* * *

Kiba woke up at around 9AM the next morning, glad to have a bit of a sleep in before he did his training for the day. He fed Akamaru and they went over to the training grounds and enjoyed several hours of hard training.

They had both stepped up the intensity of their training since Kiba had made jonin, making sure that they would be able to prove their rank on the higher and more dangerous missions that they were now getting. Now they trained 4-6 hours a day, and they also trained with Shino, Shikamaru, Hinata, Lee, Neji, Choji, Tenten, Sakura, Ino or Naruto whenever one of two of them were free to train with him.

There were other people aside the Rookie 9 that he trained with, like other specialised trackers that he worked with on occasion, or his sister, Hana and his mother, Tsume and Kuromaru. It was good to train with someone else every now and then, but since he already kind of had someone to train with, he needed it a bit less than the others.

It was good when a whole group of them could train together, but it was very rare that it happened, since Sakura was now running the hospital some days, and Naruto was being groomed for the position of Rokudaime Hokage, Shikamaru being head of the Intelligence Division and Tsunade's personal strategical advisor, Hinata, who was also being groomed, but for the position of head of the Hyuga clan. Neji was a jonin and almost constantly on missions, and he was also an ANBU buntaicho and Tenten was his right hand woman. Lastly, Choji and Ino, who were mostly working with their parents, learning their clan jutsu and going on missions whenever they were needed.

Things hadn't really changed much in village life since the war, but inside, everyone had become so much more desensitised and jaded to the death and fighting that shinobi faced every day. Naruto hadn't been captured by Pain, and Madara had finally lost his patience and decided to send an army out to try and capture him.

Everyone had been absolutely shocked at the sheer size of the force he was able to muster, but it was more than likely that some of them had been under the power of his Sharingan or their leaders at least. It was certainly a difficult war to win, even with all the five largest hidden shinobi villages allied, the smaller villages who had come to assist, and both Kirabi and Naruto eventually becoming impatient and helping out in the fight.

So many lives had been lost, but they had eventually won thanks to a shinobi only known as the Kage Oni – the name had come from the rumour that they literally came out of the shadows and disappeared back into them just as fast - who had broken the enemy lines and allowed a perfect chance for a counter attack, which helped them win the upper hand and defeat Madara's forces as well as Madara himself. Sasuke was the one who had defeated him, realising that Madara had been manipulating him the whole time but he unfortunately died from his wounds shortly after, no matter how much chakra that a distraught Sakura had poured into him, or how much Naruto had screamed for him to be okay.

In the end, Sasuke had apologised to both of them, and had been glad that they were both there for him at the end. Neither of them had ever gotten past watching him fade away in their arms and both of them always had a slight hint of sadness in their eyes ever since, but they both knew that it was the best thing that ever happened to them, just knowing that they had been there for him at the end and Sasuke, even with all his darkness and everything he'd put them through, had appreciated it.

At around 2PM, Kiba and Akamaru headed home, and he decided to shower and get the smell of sweat, metal, smoke and earth off him before going to meet this Misaki. It was 4PM before they left and started towards the local singer's home which only happened to be just around the corner.

She also lived in an apartment building, and as directed in the mission information, she lived on the second floor and he went to the appropriate apartment number before knocking on the door. Akamaru was sniffing around as per usual and his heightened sense of hearing heard a female voice say that the door was open. He told Akamaru to stay put, as some people didn't like the large ninken in their house, and he decided to take the precaution.

Just as he was opening the door, he heard her huff in amusement and mutter something along the lines of 'Not that it would matter', just loud enough for him to hear. Misaki was just walking towards where he could see the kitchen on the left side of the large room and he was yet to see her face, but he was a young, healthy man and his eyes couldn't help but follow the sway of her hips as she went towards her kitchen counter, dressed in a silver, silk kimono with some ghosted pale green patterns on it.

"Drink?" she asked simply, her smooth and soft voice sounding quite nice to his more-sensitive-than-normal ears. Her voice did have a familiar ring to it, but having hearing like his meant that you could hear someone talk from the other side of a restaurant, so he didn't think much of it.

"Uh, sure." he accepted, and watched as she poured both of them a drink of something quite clearly alcoholic and noticed her head turned ever so slightly in the direction of the door and she smirked lightly.

"He can come in, you know." the woman said, referring to Akamaru, who was still sitting outside the apartment. Kiba nodded and opened the door, letting the dog in, who immediately started sniffing again once inside, glad that he was let in.

Misaki turned around, a drink in each hand, and walked over to him, finally letting him see her face. Now he understood why she needed protection. She was...absolutely beautiful. Black hair that framed her face, and even though it was pulled back into a bun aside from two long sections that hung down to her chest, he could tell that it was rather long. She had pale skin, and silvery-grey eyes that stood out against her long, black eyelashes.

Akamaru began sniffing her, and she smirked again and bent down to pat and coo softly to him, which he very much enjoyed, especially when she scratched behind his ears with her long, manicured fingernails. She took a sip of her drink and stood back up to her full height, and began looking him over.

He felt a little nervous under her blank yet critical stare and was almost flattered when he saw her head nod slightly a few moments later. His drink smelt strong, but that was usually how he drank his own and he took a sip and made a small sound of approval when he tasted the cold beverage.

"So, Inuzuka Kiba, and Akamaru, I presume?" she inquired and looked between, occasionally patting Akamaru, who had taken to sitting right next to her, his head conveniently being where her hand hung at her side. He was supposed to be a tough, strong ninken, but he'd immediately fall in love with anyone who would scratch behind his ears.

"Yes. We'll be your bodyguards for your trip. Let me know about anything information pertaining to your protection or if you need anything." he answered, being as professional as he could. Even though he could be a bit short-tempered and irrational at times, he had gotten past most of that with time, and knew when he needed to behave himself. He was getting paid a fair bit for this mission, and he intended to do the job well.

"Wonderful. We leave at dawn tomorrow. Are you going to stay here tonight, or at your own home and meet me at the gates before we leave?" she asked, after taking another sip of her drink, enjoying the taste and the relaxing feeling it gave her.

"That's up to you ma'am." he replied respectfully, wondering if it was appropriate to call someone so young 'ma'am'.

"Jeez, way to make me feel old, Inuzuka. Call me Hitori. And don't tell anyone that Hitori is my real name. I would just say to call me Misaki, but I have trouble remembering that it's my stage name." she said off handedly with a sardonic chuckle before heading back towards her kitchen, Kiba going back to appraising the back view now that she couldn't see him.

"Well, if you would feel more comfortable and safe with me here, then I don't have a problem with staying, but if it would be a burden, then I can just meet you at the gates in the morning." Kiba spoke, remembering that she had actually asked him a question, and that he should probably answer her.

"Not a burden at all. You're a big boy, you can make your own decisions. However, if you do think it safer for you to stay, the lounge folds out into a futon and there's blankets in that cupboard. There's not much in the fridge at the moment, but there'll be enough to last until we leave tomorrow morning. I even bought a bit of dog food for you." she added, looking down at the large dog sitting at her side, who's ears pricked up the moment he heard 'food' said.

"I guess it can't hurt for me to stay for a while, but I will have to go home and pack, so I'll just meet you at the gates in the morning. Then at least you can tell me a little bit about what I have to do." he answered, finally giving up on trying to get an answer out of her.

A few minutes later, they were both sitting on the lounge with the TV making noise in the background and Hitori giving him a bit of information about what he'll have to do as her bodyguard, although she just stared blankly at the TV screen most of the time.

"Well, basically through the week I stay here, and on Friday morning's I head straight to the city. I stay upstairs at the club I work at for the weekend and come home whenever I'm bothered to, usually Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. Sometimes if there's something special on, I go there through the week as well, but that's rare. I presume my manager has organised that you'll stay upstairs at the club as well, but whatever we can sort something out." she explained, her tone being quite blank and unrevealing, not showing her true thoughts about all this.

"My manager doesn't know I live in Konoha, so apparently you are supposed to be guarding me 24/7, just to let you know, but I don't think that someone from all the way up in Sozoku would come so far away just to try and mug me, even more so if they knew where I really lived." she added quickly, making sure that there wasn't any slip-ups about that when they arrived in the city tomorrow.

"Okay, so what should I do when you're performing and also when you're not?" he inquired, wondering what she thought would be the best approach to take for this mission.

"It's up to you how you want to go about it all. You could just pretend that we know each other and just watch while I perform, and 'hang out' with me when I'm outside the club. Or you could just sit back and watch from a distance. Either way, my boss will know the whole story, it's just the other patrons and everyone else in the city we have to think about." she shrugged nonchalantly, clearly not caring how it all goes.

"Maybe for the first day I should just sit back as you said and observe, then decide how I'd like to go about it." she nodded in response to his words and he continued. "What hours do you perform?

"On Friday's, I start at 7.30PM and finish at 12.30AM. Saturday's, it's 7 until 1.30. Every couple of weeks on Sunday or Saturday, there'll be a private function that I have to perform at, but I only do a two hour show. Most of the other time I'm there, I just sleep. The club provides me with all my basic living needs, and pays for my food, so I don't really need to go out and get take-away." she surmised quickly, not needing to bore him with details when he could figure shit out himself.

"Okay. We'll as I said, I'll just sit back and observe for the first day or so, and then we can discuss the matter further." he responded with a final nod.

"I'd probably think about bringing a book or something to do in the spare time between set-up, sound-check, the show itself and sleep. I'm used to surviving on a small amount of sleep, and most of the free time I have there is spent reading a book and drinking. Other than that, there's really not much in the city to see, unless you like strip clubs/whore houses or buying illegal items." she rattled off the top of her head still staring at the TV screen, knowing that the city was pretty abundant with all three, and more.

"Well, I'm a shinobi. If I wanted illegal items I could steal them instead of buy them. And I'm not really interested in paying for sex either. I don't need money to get laid." he bragged with a smug expression, even though he wasn't serious about the last part. He didn't need to pay for sex, but he wasn't that much of a stud as everyone thought.

Hitori's response was to slowly turn her head towards him, stare at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow and one corner of her mouth tilted upwards slightly before taking a sip of her drink and slowly turning back towards the TV screen.

"What's that look for?" he asked curiously, wondering what she was thinking. She was very hard to read.

"No reason. I just don't believe that you are as 'promiscuous' as you just made yourself out to be." she answered simply, with a faint one-shouldered shrug.

"I'm not. I was only messing around." he admitted a little shyly, scratching the back of his head.

"Indeed." was all he heard from her from the next half hour while she mindlessly drank and watched the TV.

"Well, I'll head home since it's getting dark and I'll meet you at the gates tomorrow morning." he got up from her couch, called Akamaru who had made himself comfortable at Hitori's feet and said goodnight to her.

"Ja ne." she replied quietly as he walked towards her door.

As he walked home, Akamaru plodding along beside him, he thought about her and it didn't take him very long to decide on something; he didn't like her very much at all. She was cold, unrevealing, hard to read, so you never knew what she was thinking, also, she probably drank way too much for her to be in good health, but then again, he was a shinobi so he probably shouldn't drink at all.

On top of all that, she was attractive, which would end up being a bit distracting. He guessed that this mission really wouldn't be too bad, since he'd more than likely have all his living expenses paid while they were in Sozoku, and then he'd get to sit around in a fancy club every Friday and Saturday night and listen to an attractive woman sing as well as eat good food and drink good booze.

It couldn't turn out too bad...could it?

Back in Hitori's apartment, she watched from the corner of her eye as the front door opened and shut behind the Inuzuka and his ninken. She had a feeling, deep down that this would turn out to be nothing short of disastrous. He had already proven himself to be the person, the kind of shinobi no less, that she didn't usually get along with all too well.

He wasn't composed, seemed to be quick to anger, and almost a little irrational, and that was only after about an hour of being around him. It didn't seem like he was the type to plan out everything, like she was, and was more the type who prided himself on thinking on his feet, whereas she did both.

At first, he appeared to be polite and had some wit about him, and he could use manners when he needed to, but she wondered whether it would be the case once they started being around each other more often, and got...well she wouldn't say got more comfortable around each other for her part, but more or less just stopped caring about keeping up appearances.

She was certain that soon enough they would be at each other's throats and arguing about everything. Their personalities were polar opposites, and would undoubtedly clash in the worst way. She was calm about almost everything, he was short-tempered. She was composed and eloquent, while he was rather blasé about being polite and classy when he didn't have to be.

Aside from that, she'd much rather be alone on a regular basis than have someone standing right beside her, watching mostly anything and everything she did. She really hated her manager, Sakamoto, for doing this to her. It was even more irritating because she couldn't just tell him that she didn't need protection. Most of the people in Sozoku really liked her anyway, and the ones who weren't so keen were smart enough to know that she worked for the leader of the Tora, one of the largest mafia gangs in the city.

She brought that many people to the club on the weekends that all the profits he made from Monday to Friday were almost tripled some weekends. Jinoichi, the leader of the Tora, would probably kill anyone who tried to hurt her. A ruthless man he was, but she made sure that he had a soft spot for her. It was he who proposed the idea of hiring a shinobi guard to Sakamoto, and Sakamoto had made it happen.

So now, for the next little while, until she was finished her own duties, she would just have to put up with the Inuzuka and hope that she didn't end up killing him. She would try and remember to ask Tsunade to give the mission to someone else if it got to that point, and if she couldn't convince Sakamoto and Jinoichi to just leave it be.

It couldn't be so hard...could it?


	2. Glamour

**Chapter 2 - Glamour**  

Hitori watched the sun rise as she stood at the village gates, waiting for her bodyguards, Kiba and Akamaru. Only a moment after she had finished the thought ' _Where the hell are they?'_ , she heard Akamaru bark from behind her and turned around to see the ninken and his master walking towards them. Akamaru licked her hand and she pet him in greeting when he ran to her and Kiba was by her side only moments later.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." he apologised sincerely, knowing that he had almost slept straight through his alarm, and if it wasn't for Akamaru waking him, he'd probably still be asleep. Ninja tended to need a good night's sleep after training all day, or doing missions etcetera, and it was very rare that they ever felt like they were 'safe', so usually when they were in their own home, in their own village, oversleeping could be a problem, especially if you'd had a few beers the night before.

"Shall we?" she said simply, adjusting the large pack on her back and turning towards the gates again. Kiba made a sound of agreement and they set off towards the sunrise.

It was quiet for a while, and they listened to the sounds of the day starting instead of speaking. The birds were beginning to sing and chirp, the wind was whistling through the trees and the distant sound of anything and everything else began to get gradually louder and become the white noise that everyone heard on a daily basis and never paid any attention to.

"So, I presume you know where you're going?" Kiba asked as they slowly made their way further from the village and in a direction he hadn't been on before.

"I've been making this same trip back and forth every week for a few months. I think I've got the hang of it by now." she retorted sharply, not liking his questioning tone. "If we continue at this pace without stopping, we'll be there within about 4 hours." she informed him, still keeping her eyes looking in front of her. Just because she was a 'civilian' and what not, that didn't mean that she was stupid.

"Well, we can go as fast or as slow as you want. It's up to you." Kiba replied, choosing to ignore her sharp tone earlier, knowing that it would just piss him off and they'd end up in an argument. They hadn't even been travelling for an hour yet and he had no interest in starting something so early in the trip nor so early in the morning.

"Let's pick up the pace then." she said and began running so abruptly that he just watched her for a moment before realising what had happened and catching up.

Akamaru was right next to him, and Kiba was waiting for Hitori to run out of stamina and slow down. He knew that she made this trip every week, but that didn't mean she had the stamina to run the whole way, which was about 4 and a half hours at a casual walking pace as she said. She kept going for at least the next forty five minutes and then came to a sudden stop just as a small stall came into sight ahead.

Without any explanation, she strolled until they reached the stall and bought a few sticks of dango for herself, sat down on the small bench at the front, and started to eat the treat. He was a bit surprised at how sudden it was, but he was absolutely stunned at how quickly she went from having a blank, cold expression, to looking very polite and kind. The woman working at the stall seemed to recognise her, and they made a bit of small talk whilst she had prepared the dango for Hitori, so he guessed that she came by here every time she made the trip.

He bought a single stick for himself, not being overly keen for the treat unless he was in the mood, and he took a drink from his water flask and gave Akamaru a drink before closing up his pack, and getting ready to move off again. It took Hitori another minute to finish her dango, and she bid goodbye to the woman and said that she'd see her soon before she walked off, seeming to pay no attention to what he was doing.

It took him a moment to catch up with her. "What are you doing? Do you have to keeping stopping all of a sudden and walking off like that?" he half-scolded her but shrunk back a little when she turned to glare at him.

"Let me get things straight here. I don't like having a bodyguard. If it was only the ninken, that would be much easier than putting up with you. I'm more or less the type to do what I have to do on my own, and I don't like it when I'm forced to have someone around me 24/7. If you get in my way while I'm trying to do my job, whether you are a shinobi or not, I'll make you pay for it." she explained simply, not raising her voice at all, and looking completely calm, which unnerved him the most.

The young jonin almost back-chatted her about her threatening him, but for the sake of keeping the peace, his mature side that was slowly gaining control of his reactions to particular situations decided for him that he would keep his mouth shut. And honestly, he was a bit freaked out by the dark look in Hitori's silvery-grey eyes.

She had some serious balls to threaten a Konoha jonin when she was only a civilian who sang at a mafia leader's club for work. He guessed that being in a city like Sozoku so often meant that you had to either be tough or act tough, so she probably took the option to act tough and took it even further because she was a woman.

He wasn't sexist or anything, most certainly not. He could name a few women off the top of his head who could kick his ass, and then some. There was Sakura, whose taijutsu ability was good enough by itself, but with the chakra boost, if she got one good hit on you, there wouldn't be much chance that you'd be able to fight back, let alone live. Hinata was amazingly proficient in her own style of Gentle Fist now, and could even rival Neji, and he didn't doubt that the raven-haired beauty could probably take him out in close range combat.

Tenten's weaponry abilities and her ANBU training made her a deadly opponent, and Ino's ability to possess whoever she wanted to and control their body also made her someone that you wouldn't want to mess with. That was only in his age group. Above that, there was people like Anko, Kurenai and last but definitely not least, Tsunade, who was still renowned world-wide as one of Konoha's first generation Sannin, and one of the strongest female shinobi and best medical nin to ever exist.

The title of Sannin had been passed down onto Naruto, Sakura and surprisingly Sasuke, who on the battlefield against Madara's army, had shown teamwork and combat prowess that was so amazing that Tsunade herself, after the battle had granted them the title, even though Sasuke was almost lost by then.

Even with all the bad Sasuke had done, he had mostly been redeemed for taking out Orochimaru and Madara and also by having the title of the second generation Sannin bestowed upon him and his team mates, who were still with him at the end. Kakashi had also been there, but he had stood back, and let Sasuke's surrogate brother and sister deal with his passing themselves.

Naruto had carried him back into the village, knowing that it wouldn't be long until his body gave out, Sakura crying next to him, knowing that she had tried all she could to save him, but it just wouldn't be enough. All his old physical wounds that hadn't been healed properly, and also his mental scars had just been too much, and he had asked them to carry him back to Konoha, so he could see it one last time.

Kakashi made sure that no one tried to attack Sasuke, which no one even looked like they were thinking about doing. In fact, everyone, at that moment, seeing Team 7 together again, seemed to begin to understand the strength of the bond that they had, and why they had gone so far to try and save Sasuke. The last remaining Uchiha had only just nodded as a sign of respect towards his sensei and Kakashi had given him his usual eye crinkle and nodded in respect back to him, since he was now classed as a Sannin.

Despite all that had happened, Sasuke was still a Konoha shinobi until the end. He had killed Orochimaru, who would have been a constant threat as long as he still had breath in his lungs and another plan up his sleeve, and Uchiha Madara, the man who had lived for so long and gone so far to try and bring his plans to fruition and helped with all the war efforts, even if he only just turned up on the battlefield half-way through..

Kiba had only just seen it all happen from where he was sitting down, leaning up against the house until one of the medical nin came to help him up to the hospital, since he was afraid of tearing open his wound again and didn't want to give them any more work than they already had, which was too much in the first place. Even though he'd never liked Sasuke, he had hoped that someday Naruto and Sakura could have some closure over it all, no matter how it ended.

Hitori watched Kiba as he was deep in thought, wondering what was on his mind. He was barely looking where he was going, and since they had started running again, he had almost ran straight into a tree a few hundred metres back.

On face value, he seemed to be exactly how he wanted you to think he was. A bit of stud, didn't want commitments than his job as a shinobi and was a very relaxed and laid back person. Even though she had only known him for a very short amount of time, she noticed a few things about him which came about from her having quite the extraordinary ability to read people. Sometimes he just went into a state of deep thought, like he was doing now. He always seemed to have a lot on his mind. She guessed that all that he had seen very many things in the war against Uchiha Madara, as everyone who even knew of it would have.

Civilians living in the hidden villages and the villages around them would have seen bodies, and the injured being carried into the hospital every day. Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura barely attended to any of their normal duties or fought at all because of the severe amount of injured ninja, not just from Konoha, but from the other four main hidden villages - Kumo, Suna, Kiri and Iwa -, and also any other shinobi that had allied themselves with their forces, such as Amegakure, who were led by Konan, Takigakure, Kusagakure, and many other villages had come to aid the effort.

But it had been quite a while since then. Shinobi's lives are usually fleeting and shorter than any of them hoped, but it was merely a testament to their skill the longer they stayed alive, especially if they survived a large scale war. Usually, even though ninja see so much death, destruction and misfortune, in their daily lives when they weren't training or on a mission, most of them tried to keep their mind off it. There was no need to think about work if you weren't at work.

It was hard to not have your mind weighed down by some of the dishonourable and terrible things shinobi were paid good money to do, but that's really all there lives were. For doing mostly bad deeds - and the occasional good one - and get paid for it. To most people, like the Daimyo, and some of the previous Kage and leaders of other hidden villages, they were merely tools of war, disposable things that helped them gain power and land.

One person, and with the support of all the people that had believed in him, had changed that. The man who would soon become the Rokudaime Hokage, son of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and previous Kyuubi jinchuriki, Uzumaki Kushina; Uzumaki Naruto. No matter who you were, shinobi, civilian, old man or woman, or young child, everyone knew of Naruto. Especially those who live in Konoha. There had been several times where Hitori would run into Naruto at the Ichiraku ramen stall, which was just down the street from her home. He was always so low-key, for someone who had basically changed the world single-handedly. They had made quite a nice friendship.

As they were both stuck deep inside their own thoughts about philosophies of war, life and time, time flew by and no words were spoken between the two of them, and only the occasional bark from Akamaru would disturb them before they continued to contemplate once more. A mere little more than three hours later, Hitori's thoughts slowed to a stop as heard saw the distant yet familiar sight of Sozoku. Kiba seemed to notice as well, and as they got close enough for the darker shape on the horizon to take form into buildings and other such things, they slowed to a gentle walk subconsciously. Hitori felt a little parched, but this trip was very simple for her, especially after doing it for quite some time, two times within a few days.

Kiba suddenly noticed that Hitori had ran all the way, keeping up with his speed rather easily. He had previously assumed that she kept herself in good shape since she was almost on display when she performed and she would have to look good. Also, having shinobi who were in peak physical condition around you all the time, tended to make you want to have a good physique as well. It was mostly easy since there was always someone to ask about simple ways to keep fit.

He had also noticed that her natural flow of chakra, that every living thing had, human or creature, was a bit more prominent and felt more strong than most civilians. It may even be possible that she had a little ability with chakra, but never pursued a job as a shinobi. It was quite normal for that to happen since not all civilians approved of the ninja lifestyle and what the job demanded.

Hitori almost smirked when they got closer and she could smell the scent of all that was Sozoku. Cigarette smoke, alcohol, sweat, fire, money and the faint, but barely there smell that came from the few opium dens in the city. All in all, it smelled like a city that was bound to be full of crime. And it was. They walked into the city, and Hitori gestured for Kiba and Akamaru to follow her to the club. After taking a few turns into the streets and moving further into the city she headed towards one of the larger buildings on the street and went around to the side and entered through the single open door, and smiled happily at one of the barmaids walking past, who winked playfully at her in return. Akamaru trotted in, but hesitantly, wondering if he would get in trouble for being inside.

She was very polite and smiled to all the staff she walked past, and they headed straight through the large establishment, past the two different bars, three different seating areas, they finally went up a staircase, around to the left and she knocked on one of the doors before a male voice behind it permitted her entry. The door opened to reveal an office, the office of the man that Kiba assumed to be the Tora leader and the owner of the club, Jinochi. He was a slightly larger man, with a lot of lines on his face, even though he didn't seem any older than his mid 40's.

"Ah, my dear Misaki-chan. How have you been?" he greeted her happily and he got up out of his seat to hug the small girl who even had enough humour to throw him a vaguely disgusted look from over his shoulder.

"I have been well, thank you. Is business well as usual?" she asked for the sake of pleasantries, even though she couldn't care less about how his business was doing while she was away.

"It is always better on the weekend when you are here! That's why I keep trying to convince you to move here so you don't have to keep running back home. You've told me that you don't have any family around in your village, so why will you continue to insist on going back home every week?" he half-jokingly inquired, even though the both of them could tell that he was incredibly serious. "You also wouldn't need to hire a bodyguard either."

"Jinochi, you know that I don't like this city very much. The smell is quite unpleasant. And I may not have family in my village, but I have other duties there which I must attend to on a weekly basis. Also, I do not mind having a bodyguard. Jinochi, this is Inuzuka Kiba, an elite jonin of Konoha, and his companion ninken, Akamaru. Kiba, this is Jinochi, the owner of the club and the leader of the Tora." she introduced the both of them, and Jinochi gave Akamaru a bit of a reluctant look before turning to Kiba and shaking his hand, which Kiba made sure to squeeze a little harder than necessary just to let this man know that he was dealing with an elite jonin.

"If you don't mind, could you keep the dog upstairs in the room as much as possible? Thank you." he added without waiting for an answer from Kiba but continued speaking before either of them could get another word in. "Shall I let you rest after your trip?" he asked 'Misaki' kindly, flexing the hand that Kiba had shook a little at his side.

"That would be wonderful. And I would like for you to supply us with enough food for Kiba as well as myself." she demanded in a polite way, but the look in her eyes said that there would be problems if he didn't agree.

The man, dressed in his dark brown suit nodded and smiled uneasily before telling them to get some rest before the show later that night. Without another word, Hitori left the room and Kiba followed for lack of not knowing what else to do. She walked across the hallway and down a few doorways to come to the very end one on the right and she twisted the key in the lock before the door clicked and swung open for them. She dumped her pack and her light travelling cloak on the gloriously large bed in the middle of the room before giving him a look that suggested he do the same, and he did before they exited the room again, shutting the door behind them.

Hitori went downstairs to sit straight down at one of the bars that the barmaid that they had first seen after coming in the side door was at, and she immediately fixed Hitori a drink without even being asked to. A beer for starters and she poured out two shots of something he didn't recognise and they clinked glasses before making a funny, inside-joke sound, and drinking the liquid in one go. It seemed that they got along well enough for the blonde woman to know exactly what Hitori wanted when she arrived and they made a bit of small talk before she remembered to introduce Kiba, but that was probably only because the blonde was eye-balling him a little.

"This is Kiba, my new bodyguard. He has a ninken too, named Akamaru, but we've been told that he has to stay in the room as much as possible. Kiba, this is Aisa. She's a bartender at the club and we've become good friends over the course of my working here. Happy now?" she directed her last comment at Aisa who barely glanced at her, but smirked while continuing to check Kiba out. She got him a drink, and they began to talk.

In the time that Hitori had known Aisa, she had very much enjoyed her company. Even though she was still like the other girls who worked here, a bit on the flirtatious side with anyone who looked attractive enough to them, she had a much deeper side to her than the others, which was exactly why they got on better than she did with the other girls. Aisa never acted like she did when she was working when they were just hanging out together. She had been alone since she was very young, and forced to look after herself, until she had come to Sozoku and gotten a job at the club.

She was still only young, nearly 19 now and had been working since she was a few months off being 18. Aisa was very pretty, with long, wavy blonde hair that framed her heart shaped face nicely. She had nice blue-grey eyes that looked pretty against her tan skin and dark eyelashes and lids that had been covered with mascara and eye shadow and a slim but curvy body.

Aisa was the only person that Hitori would talk to, and Kiba would have felt like he was imposing if Aisa wasn't asking him things about being a shinobi and about his life. Hitori just shook her head, and smirked faintly at Aisa immediate interest in him. If only Aisa knew how much she knew about shinobi, she'd never get her to stop asking her questions. She was quite glad to have Aisa there, since it was boring enough to be in the city which had nothing that interested her, nor did the vast majority of the people amuse her either.

Kiba and Aisa continued to talk, and every now and then when she needed it, Aisa would refill a drink, or get one of her own, but it would only be a water since she had already had a double shot with Hitori earlier. It would be a while until the kitchen would start cooking dinner, and Aisa would be here all weekend, since she also stayed upstairs, and instead of struggling to stay upright, she decided to have a quick nap until she could get something to eat for dinner and then get ready for the show. That was her usual routine anyway. She would arrive, tell Jinochi that she was here, put her bags in her room, have a drink and a chat with Aisa for a while before having a nap, and Aisa would always wake her and bring some dinner up to her room for them both.

She strolled up the stairs, her boots making little to no sound as she went to the end of the hallway and opened the door. Even though she was not all that tired, she usually wasn't bothered to stay awake after she arrived, even to talk with Aisa. She made the effort to change out of her slightly sweaty and hot travelling clothes into a large baggy T-shirt and hopped into the large and soft bed which she had always found to be the best part of her trip.

After yawning and stretching out, Akamaru jumped up on the bed and laid next to her, and she gave him a pat and smiled in comfort, before she gradually drifted off into a light sleep...

* * *

A few hours later, Aisa woke her and she noticed that it looked like Kiba had only just come upstairs, like he had been talking to Aisa this whole time. She didn't mind them talking. Hell, Aisa had been keeping her sane when she was here ever since they became good friends, and she'd helped her out a lot a few times when she'd been here before. It also might mean that he would bother her less.

She just didn't want Kiba to somehow end up being more of a pain in the ass than he already was. And she certainly wouldn't let him mess around with Aisa and upset her if it came to that. There was no doubt in her mind that she'd kick his ass if he upset her, elite Konoha jonin or not.

As usual, Aisa had brought dinner up, enough for the three of them, and Kiba got dog food out of his pack for Akamaru, and made a mental note to try and find something a little bit nicer than dry food for him, since he was usually spoilt rotten at home, especially when he stayed with Tsume and Hana. They all ate while making small talk, and Kiba was amazed at the quality of the food they were currently eating and made a point of commenting on it every few minutes, making Hitori roll her eyes and Aisa laugh at him.

It was about 6.30pm by the time they finished and usually Aisa helped her get ready around this time since she was always good with doing it herself. Through the week, Aisa would be sent out to get her a new outfit, and some new accessories so she wasn't wearing the same thing every week, but they quite often just waited a few weeks until wearing an older dress, and maybe just use different jewellery.

Normally, it only took them about half an hour to get her dress and her make-up done, and then she spent the next half hour warming up and going through the set-list with the band. Aisa shooed Kiba out for when 'Misaki' started to get ready, and he went back down to the bar and decided that for her performances it would probably be better to just watch like he was a patron of the club.

He very strongly doubted that something would happen, especially since Aisa how told him how much of a dangerous man Jinochi could be, and how much power he had in the city and that everyone knew how much he treasured Misaki because of all the money she brought into not just the club, but Sozoku itself. Apparently, she was much more famous around this area than he could have imagined, and some people travelled quite a distance to watch her perform.

In fact, most of the time he had talked with Aisa, it had been about Hitori, even though he had made sure to call her Misaki, which was proving to be a much more difficult task than he had realised, so much so that he just decided to call her Misaki full-stop so that he wouldn't slip up whilst being here.

Aisa had told her about how lively and expressive Misaki could be at times, and that she knew that mostly outside of work she was pretty blank and didn't like any one to know what she was thinking. Kiba soon learned that Aisa was a person that had the ability to tell why Misaki was so messed up and so different, and able to see through any facade that she tried using.

The blonde had given him a few tips on how to deal with her, like to make sure that he never woke her up, never rushed or hurried her, and definitely didn't tell her to stop drinking so much. If he did either of those things, he'd feel her wrath. Other than that, if he just stayed out of her way as much as he could, it would be okay. And she also said that if Misaki was being extremely difficult, to let her know and she'd pull her into line.

More and more patrons were starting to arrive and take their seats at the small, round tables in front of the main stage, and the barmaids began to walk around and take people's orders, making everything much more convenient and lazy. Most of the people were middle-aged men, with a few women amongst the crowd as well, but they women were usually about 60 or so.

Just for a moment, he spotted a bright red flash go past the small open space between the curtains at the back of the stage, before he just saw a bit of Aisa's face pop out and then shut the curtains properly. The band had set up and were now doing a quick sound-check to make sure everything was in working order before they started playing.

It was just on 7.30pm and the lights in this section of the club slowly dimmed down to only have enough light for someone to only just see the expression on the face of the person next to them. He heard and just vaguely saw bodies shifting and moving around on the stage, and he was almost certain that Misaki had walked out to stand at the front where the microphone was.

Almost immediately, his sharp nose smelt something absolutely divine. He couldn't describe it, but when the lights became brighter, the band started playing and he saw the stunning woman standing in the middle of the stage, he knew it was from her. Her jet-black hair was straight and fell around her waist, which was clothed in a long, bright red dress, that showed off her soft curves and had a split up the side of her right leg, to show a pair of shiny, silver heels on her feet.

Her eyes were done so that they were dark and smoky, long eyelashes accentuated by mascara, and her pale skin looking flawless and almost luminous under the lights. Silvery-grey eyes glanced into his own for a moment before her heavenly voice resounded through the room. Immediately, he noticed that all eyes, patrons, staff, security, everyone, were on her and that her voice seemed to relax them. It had a similar effect on him too, and he continued staring until he was distracted by Aisa speaking to him from the other side of the bar.

"Gorgeous, isn't she? Such a shame she's a tomboy and doesn't show off her curves more often!" the blonde said to him over the sound of the music.

"Is that even the same person? Are you sure that's Misaki up there?" he asked incredulously, seriously questioning whether his eyes were deceiving him.

"I promise you that it's Misaki. If anyone else knew what she was like outside her performing, I'm sure they'd think the same thing too." Aisa answered with a chuckle and turned away to get a drink for the man sitting on the barstool next to him.

For the whole time she performed, he watched her intently, and it didn't go unnoticed...

 


	3. Whispers

**Chapter 3 - Whispers**

Misaki had just finished performing and it was a little after 12.30AM and Aisa was packing up the bar. Kiba had also decided to help her out with collecting glasses and such, since one of the other barmaids was talking to a rich looking patron flirtatiously and the other end of the room. Eventually, it was about 1AM and all the patrons were out, and Aisa actually had to vouch for Kiba that he was staying here and was Misaki's bodyguard to one of the large security guard.

After Aisa and Kiba had collected up all the glasses, Kiba nearly cracked up laughing as Aisa suddenly screeched at the other girl, who had been outside for a cigarette for nearly 15 minutes now, to wash everything up and consequently scare the hell out of her. Just as that happened, he didn't even notice another person standing behind him until they got close enough for him to smell that divine scent that he hadn't been able to lose all through the show.

"You tell her, Aisa." Hitori commented with an amused tone, clearly enjoying Aisa's telling the girl off.

Kiba turned around to see that most of her make-up was gone, aside from a bit of eye-liner that hadn't come off yet, and her eyelashes were still curled up slightly from the mascara. She hadn't changed out of the red dress, but she had taken the heels and the jewellery off, which was currently sitting in her hand, but the bored and tired expression on her face reminded him that it was Hitori under it all.

"Oh, sweetie. Did I forget to put a change of clothes out for you?" Aisa asked, noticing that she hadn't changed out of the dress as well.

"Yeah, but it's fine. Don't worry about it, I'm going upstairs now anyway for a quick shower. Are you going to hang out for a while, or head off to bed?" Misaki said, wondering if Aisa wasn't too tired to hang out with her and Kiba for a while before going to sleep, but she looked pretty tired tonight.

"Ugh, I think I'll just have to go to bed. That other slacker has been sitting on her ass all night, leaving everything for me. I'll just see you tomorrow morning, okay?" she replied and waited until Misaki nodded before continuing. "Alright then. Night Kiba, Night Misaki. Give Akamaru a pat for me too." she added, having already found the ninken to be absolutely adorable.

"Will do. Sleep well." Kiba smiled before he followed Hitori upstairs, and having to force himself to walk beside her, instead of behind her because he had a bad habit of watching the sway of her hips, and noticing that she had a very nice set of legs and a very nice rear end.

It made it worse that she also had the zip of the dress, which finished just above said very nice rear end undone all the way, showing pale, flawless, creamy skin and toned, lean muscles. He liked a woman who was in good shape. Eventually, he managed to walk beside her and even let her into the room just to delay her being in his direct view again, which didn't work well since when he turned around she was bent over slightly at the end of the bed, reaching for a baggy shirt that was laid out on the bed.

He tore his eyes away, and wondered vaguely about how comfortable that bed looked, and how much he would enjoy sleeping in it, until he realised that Hitori was going to be sleeping in it. The small figure of red, black and pale skin disappeared from his peripheral vision and into the bathroom as he wondered what he could do.

The sound of running water began and he heard her call his name. He froze for a moment, but stiffly walked over to the bathroom door, while Akamaru watched his master confusedly, from a warm corner in front of the ducted heating vent which he had claimed almost straight away after arriving.

"Could you take the dress and hang it up for me please?" she said and her arm popped out from behind the door with the red number hanging off her hand and he quickly took it from her, and looked at the open clothes rack which had several other dresses hanging up on it, and figured that she wanted him to put it there, and put it on the coat hanger and hung it up on the rack all the while trying to ignore the scent waving off it.

He waited for her to come out of the bathroom before asking her about the sleeping arrangements and she walked out wearing a baggy T-shirt, and a small pair of silk boxers covering some of her thighs. It was a task not to stare, but as he watched her stroll from the bathroom towards the bed, he remembered that all of a few hours ago, he didn't really like her too much.

"Why are you staring at me, Inuzuka?" she said quietly, but firmly with a sharp tone and he immediately remembered why he didn't like her too much.

"I was going to ask you about sleeping arrangements. If you hadn't noticed, there is two of us, and only one bed, large as it may be." he glared at the cold woman, hoping that the fire in his eyes would melt her a little bit. If they were going to be around each other 24/7, she could at least be a bit nicer to him.

"I believe that everything you need is in the cupboard over there." she absently pointed to a cupboard just near Akamaru's spot and he opened one of the doors to see a folded up futon, blanket and pillow sitting on a shelf.

"You get a fancy, four-poster bed like that, and I have to stick with the futon? This is bullshit." he complained to himself, not expecting her to hear since she had already tucked herself under the covers of her bed and looked quite content.

"Bring it up with Jinoichi tomorrow then. I told him to accommodate for you, but if it's not good enough, tell him you'd like a proper bed." she retorted tiredly, and sighed whilst shuffling a little bit before Akamaru decided to move and take his place on the bed again, which Kiba was glad for since it meant he could lay in front of the heating vent.

He laid out the futon and fixed the blanket and pillow up before quickly removing his jacket and mesh undershirt, grabbing a pair of clean boxers and shirt from his pack and using the shower quickly so he wouldn't keep Hitori up for too much longer. Not that he was concerned with her trying to sleep, he just didn't want her to tear him a new ass-hole for keeping her awake for a long time. And she probably would too. Literally.

It only took him a few minutes to feel clean and he quickly dressed in the red pair of boxers and grey shirt before walking out of the bathroom. He glanced at Hitori briefly, and noticed she was watching him. For lack of knowing what else to do, he continued on his way without stopping, switched off the light and went over to his futon and put his dirty clothes next to his pack before sliding under the blanket and putting his head on the crappy pillow.

The brown, scruffy haired man wanted to sigh, but he would expect that Hitori would tell him to shut up, so he did it as quietly as he could, in a long, slow exhale through his nose and shuffled a bit before shutting his eyes.

Unfortunately, the image of a beautiful, black-haired woman, clad in a red dress, silver eyes looking into his own from a distance kept him awake for quite some time...

* * *

Morning came, and Aisa knocked on the door, and instantly they were both awake. She walked in as both Hitori and Kiba sat up in their beds, rubbing eyes, yawning or stretching. As per usual, she had breakfast for them, and they all sat around the small table in the room, eating the delicious breakfast in mostly silence since it was just too early for them to be having conversation.

Afterwards, Hitori used the bathroom and Kiba used it when she was finished, before they got dressed and went downstairs. Instead of wearing what she usually would around in Konoha, Aisa had convinced her to start wearing things like kimono or yukata around the town to draw more attention to herself, therefore drawing more attention to the club, since everyone in Sozoku knew who she was and what she did.

Aisa took the red dress out with them, since she had each outfit dry-cleaned after it was used, ready for the next time she could wear it. It was also time for them to get Misaki a new dress, which is why Aisa had dragged them out. Reluctantly, Kiba made Akamaru stay in the bedroom after letting him out for a bit of run out the back of the club while the girls got ready.

They came out a few minutes later, and his jaw dropped at the change Hitori had went through. She looked like Misaki again. She was wearing a deep blue kimono with an ocean pattern on it and a pale green obi, and she had only a small amount of make-up on, not too much for it to not look natural, but to make it seem like she put some effort in.

It was obviously Aisa's doing, and the blonde also looked very nice in a pair of long black pants and a slightly shimmery white top that curved to a 'V' just between her breasts. He heard an 'Oi' from Misaki, and noticed that she saw him checking Aisa out, and merely smirked before walking ahead of them, after he sent Akamaru back upstairs, who reluctantly went and probably sat back in the place by the heating vent.

"Come on, let's hit up some shops!" Aisa said excitedly, clearly being the one who would enjoy all this the most.

Misaki groaned and rolled her eyes even though she was smirking lightly, mumbling about something before following the bubbly blonde to wherever she was taking them. They took several turns here and there until they came to the dry-cleaners and Aisa dropped off the dress before they headed to a woman's clothing shop with garments that even grabbed Kiba's attention.

That was mostly because they were all _very_ revealing, even a little bit kinky to him, and Aisa looked at a fair few things here and there, pulling out some of the most 'interesting' outfits and showing them to Misaki, who promptly looked embarrassed at seeing some of them.

Aisa pulled out a black and white corset number, that came with a lacy g-string and stockings and held it up against Misaki who was in her own world until she felt and saw the outfit being held against her, and looked at Kiba, whose eyes were wide before he quickly turned away with his hands in his pockets, starting to feel a little uncomfortable about being dragged along in this shopping trip.

After a chuckle, Aisa stopped trying to embarrass Misaki and make Kiba feel uncomfortable and start looking for a new dress. They browsed through for a while, and occasionally Aisa would pull out something and Misaki would either cringe or shake her head as if to say 'Are you fucking serious?' and Aisa sighed each time.

They exited that shop and headed down the road to another, more classy shop, which they found a few different ones that Misaki seemed to be able to tolerate looking at, and Aisa told her to try a few on, and she groaned but took the dresses into the changing room while the blonde and Kiba waited outside.

She opened the curtain after a moment to reveal the pale blue dress, and Aisa zipped up the back for her, then tilted her head from side to side as Misaki stood there, not enjoying the critical stare. Aisa shook her head and told her to try on another one. The curtain shut, and they waited a few more moments before it opened again to reveal her with a deep pink coloured dress, and Misaki growled at Aisa for choosing pink, which she hated with a passion.

Again, the curtain shut and opened, and three more different dresses were revealed each time. Kiba gave up on standing there, and decided to amuse himself by having a look. It wasn't very amusing until he found something wondrous.

His hand brushed up against something softer than he'd ever felt before. It was such a beautiful fabric that he pulled the dress it belonged to off the rack and held it up in front of him to look at it. He heard Aisa gasp loudly, and he looked at her, thinking the exact same thing as she was.

When Misaki opened the curtain to show them another dress, Aisa didn't even bother to look at it before telling her to try on the one Kiba had just discovered and she groaned before shutting the curtain and taking off the dress that she had just spent five minutes putting on. These things were so damn confusing to her, even now, and it was annoying to put one on, only to take it straight off again.

As she was pulling the dress on, she made a sound of approval at the feel of the fabric against her skin and smiled before looking at the full-length mirror and having her jaw drop in shock. It was probably a bit more revealing than she would have liked, but even Misaki had to admit that it looked damn good on her.

Aisa was hoping that Misaki looked good in the dress Kiba had picked out, and just before she went to open the curtain, she stopped her and went in the change-room instead. If the dress looked good, she thought it would be nice to surprise Kiba with her wearing it when she got around to it. It was a shimmery black material, with a back on it that barely existed since it came to a 'V' shape just above her rear end, like the red one had done with the zip undone. Misaki turned around to show her the front and her gasp signalled that it was a very nice dress.

The front curved down and dangled just in between her small, but perky breasts and it fell beautifully over her curves with the gathered sides at her hips and the split up the left side went up to her thigh and the bottom pooled at her feet a little more than it should, because she was a bit shorter than most women, but it would improve when she wore heels.

"You look amazing! And you've got the perfect heels for it! The shiny black ones with the platform and the huge stiletto heel! I can't even believe it! Kiba chose well." Aisa said breathlessly with shock over how wonderful her friend looked.

"Eh? Kiba chose this out?" Misaki asked incredulously, wondering why he would have bothered.

"He was just looking around and he pulled it out, and I knew he thought it would look nice on you, so I got you to try it on. He was right, it looks stunning! You have to surprise him with it next week, since I already organised your outfit for tomorrow night." she replied excitedly and bounced up and down a little bit.

"Why do I have to surprise him? He's my bodyguard, not my lover." Misaki responded with an eye roll.

"That may be so, but he's been checking you out a _lot_ ever since you got here. I think he's got quite the crush on you, Misaki-chan."Aisa used the honorific that she hated to get her attention more, which worked very well. Misaki mock-glared and recalled when she caught Kiba looking at Aisa this morning and doubted that claim very much.

"If anything, he'd have a crush on you, Aisa-chan. Anyway, can I get out of this dress now?" she asked hopefully, getting very sick of trying on dress, after dress, after dress.

"Bullshit. And yes, come out when you're ready." Aisa exited the change-room and smirked at Kiba who eyed her curiously, wondering if those two had planned anything. He couldn't really hear them very clearly with all the sounds of the city around them, and they were whispering very quietly, which made it even more difficult.

Misaki opened the curtain with her kimono back on a minute later, and he stared at her for a moment before speaking. "Why don't I get to see the dress on you? I picked it out!" he asked confusedly and watched as Misaki just shrugged and for lack of anything better to say, just said one word.

"Surprise."

* * *

After purchasing the dress, they headed back and decided to play a quick game of poker and have a beer, even though it was still morning. Kiba quickly found that this place would suit his needs very much. Barely anyone was at the club except Jinochi, who stayed in his office all day, Aisa and Misaki – now Kiba and Akamaru as well - until about 3PM and everyone left at about 2AM on Fridays and 3AM on Saturdays and about 1AM through the week. So for most of the day, they had the club to themselves.

So they went upstairs and Aisa grabbed the cards and the play money that she had bought for when her and Misaki played cards together and since no one was there, Akamaru came to sit downstairs with them and they all sat at one of the tables near where the main stage was and Aisa got them all a beer, and she got a bottle of alcohol, and three shot glasses before sitting down, and she dealt the cards first.

"Hey, we should play strip poker!" Kiba joked even though he definitely wouldn't say no if they both agreed to it. He didn't have anything to hide and he certainly wouldn't mind having these two attractive women agree to take their clothes off when they lost, especially because he was pretty damn good at poker.

"We're not playing strip poker now, and not in the middle of the club, you idiot." Misaki hissed at him, and Aisa started to laugh because she knew Misaki was embarrassed. "Are you a pervert or something, Inuzuka?"

"What? I'm not a pervert. I was just suggesting that we make this a little more...interesting." he retorted with a shocked then devious expression.

"Yeah, exactly Misaki. Don't be such a party pooper. And besides, Kiba is a...young, red-blooded male. I think it would be perfectly normal for him to be attracted to us lovely ladies." the blonde spoke up and Misaki watched Kiba's eyes follow the hand that Aisa gestured down her body to emphasise her point more.

"Whatever. I'm just not playing strip poker. You pair can play, but I'll keep my clothes on, thank you very much." she averted her eyes from the two other players and looked at her cards while the other two shook their heads and smirked before looking at their own cards.

A six of hearts, and an eight of hearts was revealed to her eyes as she lifted up the cards just enough for her to see. Aisa dealt the flop, and Misaki didn't show anything on her face, even though there was already two hearts out, and if another came out, she would have a flush. She raised to $20 and both Aisa and Kiba called. The turn was dealt and it was a club. Misaki's expression still showed nothing, and she checked instead of betting.

Aisa burned a card, and then flipped over the river. It was a heart which meant Misaki had a flush. She raised again, and everyone called, and she guessed that they all had good cards as well. Now it was the showdown.

The suspense was high and they all continued to look at the cards and at each other, except for Misaki, who just sat staring into space, drinking her beer and putting money out when she needed to. After a minute, it was time for the cards to be revealed. Kiba turned his over first, and he had two pairs. Aisa turned hers over, and she also had two pairs, but the cards were higher than Kiba's which meant she was currently winning.

Misaki turned over her cards, revealing that she had a flush and Aisa groaned, thinking that she might have had a chance at winning that one. She poured the alcohol into two of the glasses and gave one to Kiba, who looked at it confusedly.

"When we play, everyone who loses takes a shot. But we'll have to take it easy since you still have a show to do tonight." Aisa said, looking pointedly at Misaki, "You still have a job to do," looking at Kiba, "And I still have work to do." she finished, pointing at herself before clinking her glass against Kiba's and taking the shot.

"Thank you, thank you." Misaki said as she took the money from the middle of the table and added it to her own pile.

They played for at least another hour, until Kiba was rather tipsy. Aisa was almost drunk and Misaki was still...well sober because she kept winning. Kiba blamed it on her good poker face. Misaki had lost a fair few times, but she had won about 50-60% of the games between the three of them.

She stopped the game just after Aisa had lost and had to take another shot, deciding that they'd probably all had enough, except her, and she decided to fix that by taking a few shots while Kiba helped Aisa up the stairs to the bedroom and followed with Akamaru after she had put the bottle back, the shot glasses with the other dirty glasses, and lastly, packed up the cards and play money.

Aisa laid down on Misaki's large bed and they just chilled out until it was time for Aisa to start work, which luckily enough she had sobered up enough to do properly. Kiba and Misaki stayed in the bedroom and Misaki played with Akamaru while Kiba did some kata in the corner of the room, which was big enough for the two different activities and still have some extra space between them.

Misaki chuckled every now and then as she played tug-o-war with the large ninken, who was that strong that if he pulled without her realising, she went stumbling across the room, which seemed to amuse Akamaru. The small, dark-haired woman still gave him a run for his money though.

Eventually, Akamaru tired her out and she just wasn't bothered to play any more, so both woman and dog laid down, and Misaki rested her head on the dog's stomach and she watched Kiba continue with his kata over the other side of the room. He didn't have much room to train, and he wanted to at least do something while he was here, so he had decided to get his taijutsu technique even better than it was and practice even single movement he knew to the point where it was absolutely flawless.

He was wearing a pair of baggy ¾ shorts that left him plenty of room to move and breath, and a simple tank top. Misaki watched the flexed muscle that rippled when he shifted his weight and moved around, and she couldn't help but stare. It was the beauty and flow in the movements that had always made her think how amazing shinobi could be. How amazing it was that they were in such peak physical condition that they could make art with their own bodies.

The staring became much worse as he abruptly stopped and removed his tank top, revealing everything that she had imagined would be underneath it. She wasn't a person that was very interested in sex or anything related to it, but she was perfectly capable of acknowledging when she found someone attractive.

And to her, Kiba was pretty damn attractive. She never really found anyone like Sasuke attractive, because of his almost feminine soft features, and what not, and she didn't see much interest in someone like Genma either, even though most of the women in Konoha, shinobi or not found him attractive. Naruto was good looking because he was so vibrant, confident and fun to be around, and his personality just made it better.

Other than that, there wasn't that many shinobi or civilians that she thought were good looking. She had seen photos of the Akatsuki and thought that the blonde, Deidara was intriguing alluring with his mischievous smirk and the fire in his eyes. Even Itachi, Sasuke's brother had a dark attraction she couldn't quite analyse.

Someone who looked attractive in a generic way never caught her attention, but someone like Kiba with his scruffy, brown hair, tan skin, clan markings, and the smug look he got on his face sometimes, seemed to interest her. Also, something she valued in a person, as a friend, comrade, and partner if she ever felt the need to have one in her life, was depth. Someone who was all about materialistic things wouldn't even be a beep on her radar.

But as she watched Kiba, she saw the dehumanisation in his eyes, she saw how jaded shinobi life had made him, but also how he didn't seem to let that get to him. The maturity he had that bubbled subtlety under the surface probably helped him realise that he was going to see terrible things in his line of work.

Nevertheless, one couldn't stay completed unaffected by all that they did, unless they had no emotions, morals or anything like that. She was briefly reminded of someone she knew, and how much they had changed with the help of team mates who had become very, very close friends and surrogate siblings. She had certainly seen more than her fair share of horrific things, and it wasn't going to stop any time soon, that was for sure.

After about half an hour or so, Kiba stopped and took some deep breaths while stretching and cooling down a little before he looked at her, wondering if she had particular reason for watching him the whole time he had been working out, since he felt a little unnerved.

"You right there?" he asked with a bit of a smirk.

"It's just interesting watching you." she commented off-handedly with a shrug and Akamaru sat up and trotted over to Kiba when he saw him pull out some dog food for him, leaving Misaki to lay on the floor.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready soon?" he inquired, looking at the time.

"Why, what's the time?" she answered with a question very lazily, rolling over and preparing to push herself up and to her feet.

"It's a bit after 6 o'clock." he chuckled as she yelped and sped off to the little dressing table over the other side of the room and sat down to begin getting ready.

He had a quick shower, and within that five minutes, she had changed dramatically. Her complexion, while it was almost perfect without it, had been covered with a very light layer of foundation and powder, and one of her eyes was framed with jet black eye liner. On her eyelid, there was a bright shade of blue in the corner, which faded to black as it went along the lid and it shimmered as she turned her head to check it was done right.

Then, she pulled out what he assumed was mascara and slid the brush along her eyelashes, making them longer, darker and fuller than they were all of ten seconds ago. It opened up her eyes and made the silvery-grey of her iris' shine a bit brighter.

When she was satisfied, she began working on the other side, and within another five minutes, was transformed into the majestically beautiful woman known as Misaki, who could seem to melt the heart of any person, man or woman, young or old, with her angelic voice and looks. Even he couldn't lie to himself and say that his 'heart' didn't throb a little harder when she had looked into his eyes and begun singing last night.

As soon as she was happy with her appearance, she got up off the chair and walked around to the dress rack, where a pale blue, strapless, full-length dress was waiting to be wrapped around her figure. On a Saturday, Aisa would usually be too busy to come up and help her get ready, so she would have to get Kiba to help her out.

She looked in the mirror to see him looking back at her, and gave him a look as if to say 'A bit of privacy, please' and he blushed slightly with embarrassment before turning away so he couldn't see anything. When she had pulled the dress on, she asked him if he could give her a hand. He took a deep breath and turned back around and zipped up the dress for her, trying to ignore the skin in front of him which was probably just as soft as it looked.

Kiba thought he saw a scar on her back when he was zipping up the dress, but it was covered up too quick for him to be sure, and he stepped back when he was finished helping her. Misaki moved over to look in the mirror, and he heard her humming softly as she adjusted things here and there and then let her hair out, which had been in a bun all day. She sighed happily, thankful that it didn't look horrible, and the natural wave that it had taken over the day actually looked quite elegant.

Now, she was ready to perform...


	4. Crave

**Chapter 4 - Crave**

After the show that night which sold out completely, as they usually did since they had nothing to do tomorrow, they stayed up for an hour or so and played a few hands of poker, talked, laughed and had a few drinks before they all decided to crash out. Aisa went back to her room after wishing Misaki, Kiba and Akamaru goodnight. Kiba had a shower quickly and gave Akamaru a few treats before he tucked himself up into the tiny, cold futon, and Akamaru took to sleeping next to him to give him some extra warmth.

By the time that was all done, Misaki was still sitting at her dressing table, staring off into space. Kiba watched her placid face as she was deeply absorbed in thought. He couldn't quite tell what emotion was hiding just behind her eyes, and the slightly twisted mouth and scrunched up nose made it harder to tell whether it was worry, or anger, or whatever other possibilities there could be.

"Hitori?" he said softly, hoping to snap her out of it, but not startle her. She snapped out of her trance abruptly and he just barely noticed that her hands moved from being linked together in her lap to having one on her right thigh and the other at her side, bent slightly.

"What?" she growled at him, annoyed that she had now lost her train of thought. She had been so close to developing a good idea, but never mind that now.

"I was just wondering if you were okay. You didn't seem much like yourself for a minute there." he wasn't bothered by her sharp tones any more and no longer snapped back, although it did frustrate him a little that she couldn't let up a bit.

"There's a lot on my mind at the moment, and I had nearly solved one problem, but now I've lost my train of thought and I can't remember what I was thinking of." she spoke considerably calmer now, almost spacing out again, but shaking her head and she walked over and flopped down on the over size bed before realising that she didn't turn off the ceiling light, and that the lamp on her bedside table was still on.

She groaned quietly, and Kiba looked at her confusedly before she attempted to grab some random item off the small bedside table next to her and ended up only finding a small tube of lip gloss. Another small groan escaped her, and she sat her head up just enough to aim the cosmetic device at the light switch across the room, and with pinpoint accuracy, she threw it and the light switched off with a click, and a much louder smack from the collision.

As she moved to roll over, she caught Kiba's eye, who was almost laughing. She glared at him critically for a moment, then looked to Akamaru who almost seemed to roll his eyes at his master's antics and just put his head back down on the floor.

"What's funny?" Hitori asked demandingly, her eyes fiery.

"That was just very well done. I didn't expect you to actually hit the light switch, let alone hit it hard enough to turn it off. Perhaps you have learnt something from being around shinobi all the time." he smirked and huffed, but his amusement dropped when Hitori's face blanked even more so than usual, to a state where he barely dared to breathe.

"You have no idea." she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

Hitori reached over and switched off the small lamp that only gave a small amount of light to the room, enough for Kiba to see the far off, and troubled look in Hitori's eyes before they shut slowly and he eventually heard her breathing even out and soon enough, he fell asleep...

* * *

"Kiba! Kiba! Wake up damn it!" he snapped out of his sleep and realised that it was Hitori hissing quietly.

Something was wrong.

"What's the matter?" he said frantically and tried to look for her in the pitch black room. She was kneeling next to his futon and she reached out and grabbed his forearm just seeing it before it hit her in the face, and he grabbed back in panic.

They were inches away from each other and he heard Hitori make a small pained sound before he slid out from under the covers and put his other hand on her shoulder in one swift movement. She fell backwards, now laying on the floor, and Kiba tried to calm her as he scrambled to his feet and turned the light on so he could see what had happened.

He spun around to see a paler-than-normal Hitori, with long black hair sticking to her face, neck and shoulders because of her sweating, breathing shallow and quick, and her small hands covering a wound with a patch of blood surrounding it.

"What the fuck happened to you? Who did this?" he said as he grabbed his pillow and put it underneath her head, and gently started to examine the wound. It was just a stab wound and it wasn't that deep and it had seemed to stop bleeding.

"Never mind that now. Can you just do something? Get me something to dull the pain!" Hitori growled as quietly as she could at him, not wanting to draw attention from any one else in the building, namely Aisa who was also the _only_ other person in the building, who would probably have a heart attack if she knew what was happening.

Kiba grabbed his pack and hung it upside down until the smaller bag with medical supplies in it came falling out onto the floor. He unzipped it almost quick enough to break the thing, and rummaged through it until he found the strongest painkillers he had and he took the syringe out of the protective packaging and injected into Hitori's bloodstream without a second thought.

She tensed at the feeling of the pin prick in her arm, but relaxed as the drug set in quickly. A few minutes later, the pain was a dull throb, and Kiba picked her up bridal style and moved her to the bathroom so he could start cleaning the wound.

As he tried to clean it, Hitori just sat quietly up against the bath with her eyes shut, still and calm, her breathing making it sound like she was asleep, but he had no doubt that she was wide awake. After the wound was clean, he stitched it up for her, having had a bit of medical experience in the field, just from stitching up small, minor wounds on missions so he could get home and get them treated without infection or constant bleeding.

"There. All done." he said after he had finished dressing the wound. "Now, how did this happen? And why were you out without me? My job is to protect you, and apparently I've already failed that mission." he gestured to the wound when she glared at him coldly after he asked why she went out by herself.

"Kiba. Let's get one thing straight here. I don't believe I need your protection, I'm merely doing all this song and dance for my own reasons and when I don't need to do it any more, I hope to never look at this city again, nor a dress, or a pair of heels and while I'm at it, you as well. All you have been doing is getting in my way. So next time I feel like going out by myself, there'll be no questions asked if you want to get paid each week. Got it?" she said all this perfectly calmly and so quietly he wouldn't have been able to hear her unless he was right there next to her.

Even though she spoke calmly, he could pick up on the subtle anger in her voice and he noticed the slight increase in her natural chakra. He wasn't entirely sure whether she was angry at him directly, or just at her whole situation in it's entirety though. Also, even though it wasn't so surprising now after being talked down to by her since they met, but she always seemed to speak to him like he was constantly underestimating her.

He had no idea what her deal was, but he had a feeling that if he ever wanted to ask, he'd have to pick a time where she was in the best mood possible. Definitely not now, after she'd just been attacked, for whatever reason. Maybe he'd ask her next weekend when he thought it was the best time.

After a few minutes of silence as Hitori calmed herself down more, and Kiba was stuck in thought, both of them eventually moved back into the bedroom, Hitori refusing to be carried again, and they both flopped down on their beds, Hitori with much less 'flop' and many hissed curses in pain and discomfort. She was still very angry, and Kiba's prying certainly didn't help with her mood, but she couldn't blame him. He was only trying to do the job he had been charged with.

But she knew that she had to keep him at a distance or he would only get hurt...

* * *

The next morning, or afternoon, more or less, Kiba, Akamaru and Misaki woke up to Aisa knocking on the bedroom door and coming in with breakfast for them, as per usual, as well as some packed food that she always prepared for Misaki's trip back home since she lived so far away, but now there was enough for Kiba and a few treats for Akamaru as well.

Aisa asked how they were both feeling and Misaki threw Kiba a look that told him not to say a word about what had happened last night, confirming to him that it had actually happened and it wasn't a dream. So, he pushed it out of his mind and they carried on like last night's main event hadn't happened.

Within a bit over an hour they were ready to go, and decided to be on their way and as per usual, Misaki went to tell Jinoichi she was leaving. He was sitting in his office, doing some sort of paper work and mumbling to himself about something or other. She knocked on the door, looking bored and like she wanted to get out of there already and the plump man looked up from his work and grinned, making her avert her eyes in irritation.

"I'm going now. I'll see you next week." she smiled politely and went to walk away but his voice stopped her.

"Oh, before I forget. The meeting is next Sunday, so please don't leave until after it's over." he said seriously, as if daring her to miss it, but his expression quickly changed when her blank stare became piercing.

No more words were said and Misaki walked out the side door of the club, Kiba and Akamaru following suit, Aisa coming to see them off. The shinobi, ninken and singer stood just outside the door and said goodbye before heading to the edge of the city and beginning the trip back to Konoha.

It was quiet for at least half an hour until Hitori finally broke the silence and spoke.

"Let's pick up the pace. I want to get this wound treated as soon as possible." she said and began to speed up a bit with a slight wince.

"Okay, just don't push yourself too hard. How is it feeling anyway?" he asked curiously, and maybe with a hint of concern.

"Fucking hurts like a bitch." she growled seriously, but smirked a little when Kiba chuckled at the sudden outburst of profanity from her.

His chuckle turned into a grin when he saw her small smirk, kind of surprised that she was actually showing some sort of positive emotion when it was just the two of them. Her almost split personality was incredibly frustrating at times. When they were alone, aside from Akamaru, of course, she was cold, only spoke when necessary and it was usually to chew him out on something.

But when Aisa or someone else from the club was around, she was wonderful. She laughed, joked, talked as if she wasn't secretly an ice queen who had eyes that could stir up a blizzard with a simple glare, and would probably tear your head off if you questioned her. That was the side of her he liked, the Misaki side. In fact, he was actually a little concerned with how much he liked that side of her.

Seeing her the past two nights, clad in dresses made out of beautiful fabrics with amazing colours, a pair of heels on her small feet, and those damn silver eyes of her standing out as if they were brighter than the stage lights themselves when they were framed with black and stunningly long, curled jet black eyelashes that made her eyes seem as wide as saucers, and the divine perfumes she wore each night. And that wasn't even mentioning her angelic voice that relaxed him, yet got him so worked up at the same time.

He mentally sighed, having no doubt that he wouldn't be able to get the image of her singing while looking straight into his eyes would keep him up for a few more nights and probably haunt him in his sleep as well. Though the great part about this mission, was that sometimes it didn't seem like a mission at all. For example, when Aisa, Misaki and himself were all sitting around playing poker and drinking beer in the middle of the morning.

Or even just when they were sitting around, chatting at breakfast time. He'd only been there for about two days, but already he was enjoying being able to absorb himself into another world, another life and almost completely erase any thought of the outside world.

Akamaru definitely enjoyed it, since he'd claimed the warmest and most comfortable spot in the room, and he also got to sleep on the oversized, four-poster bed with Hitori, which Kiba was secretly jealous of. He had shared beds with women before, in a completely sexual and also completely non-sexual way. He had been sent on a mission to protect a medic who was taking a trip to the northern parts of Kumo to collect plants, herbs and other ingredients that only grew in cold temperatures and at high altitudes.

She had stood on a loose rock and twisted her ankle, and they had taken refuge from a storm in a small cave and shared a sleeping bag for warmth while she healed herself for a few hours. He hadn't even thought of it in a sexual way, and she didn't seem to either, and it hadn't clicked with him until they had gotten home about how weird it could have been if they were any less professional.

Then of course, there was the sexual way. He hadn't slept with that many women, only 2, and one of which he was in a relationship with at the time. The first girl he ever dated, he was with for five months. She was a chunin named Kiyoko and she was year younger than him. They had met when they were both waiting outside the Hokage's office to be seen to, and started up a conversation.

Unfortunately he hadn't seen her again until a week later, but she had stuck in his mind the whole time. He asked if she wanted to hang out, and all they had done was go for a walk around the village and get some lunch, but they had both enjoyed it. Soon enough, they started dating and it was going great since they got along so well, but eventually they decided that there wasn't enough passion for a relationship, and they'd be better off as friends. They still hung out, and didn't find it awkward because they were both mature enough to realise that even though it didn't work out, they didn't have to hate each other.

The second girl he dated was the first girl he was ever intimate with. Her name was Mitsuko. She was a medic in the hospital who had treated him when he came back injured from a mission, and they'd hit it off straight away. He was instantly attracted to her, and he found her personality to be wonderful, if a little timid. She was very sweet to him for the whole 9 months they were together and they both had their first time after they'd been together for about 6 months.

After a while, the spark had started to fizzle and they had an argument over it, but when they had calmed down, they both decided it was probably best to end it, to save themselves the hassle of arguing, and being angry at each other, when they could just leave it on a good note and be on civil terms.

Lastly, he'd had a one night stand when he was away on a mission and staying overnight in a hotel on his way home. He had sat down at the bar and ordered himself a beer and a few minutes later, a very pretty girl had sat down next to him and ordered the same beer.

He smirked, and she noticed and questioned him on it, but laughed when he told her why he'd smirked. Being the gentleman he was, he had paid for her beer, and they talked for a while, the conversation slowly getting more and more flirtatious as the night went on, and eventually he had walked her back to her room and she had asked him if he wanted to come in. He didn't say no, and the next morning, when he had to leave, he was kind enough to explain to her why he was leaving, and he was glad to see that she really didn't mind. With a kiss on the cheek, and the sound of the door shutting, he was gone.

Kiba hadn't really had any bad experiences with relationships, but underneath everything, he was secretly a big softie, and he'd been single for quite a while, over a year now, and he had decided to try and find a nice girl to settle down with, since he had no idea when the next mission would come, and that next mission might kill him. He didn't want to die without experiencing a really strong, passionate relationship with a beautiful woman who he could live forever with.

Lame as it was, shinobi's lives were too fleeting to worry about something being lame or corny, and most just wanted to experience everything they could while they had their time. The last thing he wanted to happen in his life was fall in love with someone, and die before he could tell them just how much he cared for them.

The young jonin sighed and looked up ahead to see the small stall they had passed by on their way over to Sozoku up ahead and Hitori was fiddling with her pocket, probably trying to get money out and ready so she could get some dango as soon as possible.

Once they arrived, they slowed down to a stop, and Hitori's face contorted in pain a little, as her muscles got used to walking again and she quickly schooled her expression and smiled at the lady running the stall and she gave her the usual three sticks and she was kind enough to let her have one for free. Hitori bowed and thanked her kindly and she sat down on the small bench and ate with a tiny satisfied smile on her face that made Kiba smile too.

He recalled some of the small things about his two ex-girlfriends and realised that it was always the tiniest things, like a cute smile, or a lingering look that made everything more special for him. It seemed to always be the small things that he found so validating and so attractive about someone, and that little smile that Hitori had on her face threatened to become one of them.

To distract himself, he ordered some dango as well, and gave a stick of it to Akamaru, who ate it in one go. As he ate, he struggled to push romantic thoughts out of his mind, and try and go back to his usual swagger-filled self. He swore it was the lack of father figure or brother in his life that made him this way.

"You done?" Hitori asked him abruptly and he finished his dango off in one bite and thanked the lady and bowed his head slightly before following Hitori towards Konoha.

It wasn't far off now and they'd be home inside an hour, at most and that was only because they were moving a bit slower than they did on the way over for obvious enough reasons. Hitori was thoroughly frustrated about being injured, and she knew that it would be hard to keep it from Kiba, and she was going to go to the hospital, get healed up and then go and see Naruto about her situation.

She was going to see Naruto instead of going straight to Tsunade because she'd prefer to not use up Tsunade's short time in between switching duties over to Naruto, who would be named Hokage any time now, and making sure everything would be okay and easy as possible for him so he could get used to it quickly.

When they arrived, Hitori gave Akamaru a pat, and said that they would meet at the gates the same time next Friday and she was on her way too quick for him to even say goodbye. He had been tempted to ask her to have lunch with him tomorrow, but he remembered that he was not trying to get involved with her and she'd probably think he was a pervert just for asking her to hang out with him and get some lunch.

So, instead he shuffled back to his apartment and cooked himself some lunch and gave Akamaru a nice big bone to enjoy before he sat down on the couch and watched TV. Meanwhile, Hitori dragged herself to the hospital and smirked when she saw Sakura in the lobby, filling out some paperwork. She walked straight over to her and Sakura greeted her happily, since they hadn't seen each other in a while.

"Could we go to your office? I need a hand with something." Hitori said quietly with a look on her face that Sakura understood immediately.

"This way." she gestured and they walked around a few corners and down a hallway until they came to her office. Sakura shut the door behind them and they both sat down to talk. "What do you need?" Sakura asked, concern showing on her face.

"Firstly, I need you to heal up a minor wound for me. I'm incapacitated with using my chakra at the moment." the black-haired girl replied with a frustrated tone and continued when she saw Sakura's questioning gaze. " You know the mission I've got, to bust this drug ring is Sozoku has taken quite a difficult turn. I'm undercover as a singer and also as part of the mafia in the club owned by the particular group I'm supposed to bust, but the owner/leader and my manager decided to hire a shinobi to protect me. That shinobi is Inuzuka Kiba."

Sakura made a sound of understanding and nodded before gesturing for her to continue on with her increasingly interesting series of events that were becoming more difficult by the day.

"I've had to keep a lid on my chakra for the whole weekend, which is hard, and I know that he would have been able to sense just a tiny amount of it that I can't completely erase when he's right next to me. So I don't want to risk using my chakra in case he feels it and becomes suspicious since I can't jeopardise this mission. I've been working on it for three months, and I'll kill him if he fucks it up for me." she explained simply and briefly, not being bothered to reveal too much information.

"Last night, I was attacked when I was trying to break into a warehouse, and I got a stab wound." she lifted her shirt up to show Sakura the injury and the head medic narrowed her eyes at it in inspection before nodding and getting a few medical supplies out to fix it while Hitori kept talking. "They had electronic motion sensors and the whole she-bang, so I know that they're definitely bringing money in. So I'm fine and everything, but I wasn't able to heal myself while I was escaping since I had to conceal myself." she stopped speaking for a minute and Sakura began fixing up her wound.

"When I got back to the club, I knew if I used my chakra, it would wake Kiba since there's not many shinobi around, and a large chakra spike nearby would stir anyone. So I just woke him up and got him to fix it up for me. I just have to think of an excuse as to why I got stabbed before I see him again, since he's supposed to be with me everywhere I go 24/7. I'm thinking I might just go see if I can let him in and make things easier on both of us."

"That probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Obviously it's not a classified mission, so I'm sure that if it is making it harder for you to bust them and successfully complete your mission, I don't think it would be a problem. You'd have to ask though, I guess. I've got to say, Kiba did a pretty decent job of patching you up. I presume you stopped the bleeding straight away though." Hitori nodded in answer and yawned a little, finally starting to feel tired since sleeping was a bit difficult last night/this morning.

"You're all done." Sakura said, slipping off her surgical gloves with a smile.

"Thank you. Anyway, I'm going to go back home and go to bed. I'll go see Tsunade tomorrow about the mission-collision. Ja ne." Hitori walked out of Sakura's office, holding a hand up above her shoulders in a goodbye gesture and strolled out of the hospital and back to her building.

As she had a shower and thought about how the weekend went, she realised that the amount of initial dislike she had for Kiba was decreasing. He seemed to be the kind of person who was always different when you were alone with him. At some points, it almost seemed like he felt lonely. She wasn't about to go delving into his personal life, but it could be quite distracting at times when he was just sitting on the end of the bed, deep in thought.

According to Sakura, who she had asked about Kiba previously after she'd found out that he was going to be Misaki's bodyguard, he was a rather hot-headed, fiery and slightly immature and irrational boy before the war. Everyone involved in that war had aged 30 years on the inside, and she said that he was very different to what he was back then.

It seemed that she was right, because although he could be a bit volatile and easily pissed off at times, there was other times where he just shrugged it off and didn't let it phase him. She presumed that was the maturity he had gained through being in the war, and now didn't act as illogically as he would have a few years ago.

She had noticed how quiet he could be at times, and it always seemed like he was thinking about something, no matter how far forward in his mind it was. She recalled how spaced out he was the whole trip home, and it was considerably longer than the way there because of her injury. Sometimes, she was so distantly intrigued by what was going through his head she'd probably pay him money to tell her what he was thinking about.

As she got tucked up in her much more comfortable and familiar, though considerably smaller bed, she yawned again and wondered what Tsunade would say about the arising problems with completing her mission, and also what would occur next weekend, which seemed much more interesting at this point in time...


	5. Quiet

**Chapter 5 - Quiet**

The next morning was boring as all hell for Kiba and Akamaru. He had gotten to sleep at some point during the night, but probably got at least 4 and half hours rest in total while Akamaru slept like a log, as per usual for the large ninken. So, at the moment, they were sitting around looking at the TV, but not really watching it.

There was some movie on about a girl, who meets a man a few years older than her because she got caught up in the middle of a fight between him and a bad guy. The man realises that she'll be a target now and brings her along, and they eventually save the day and fall in love. Or so Kiba had presumed the movie would end like that anyway. Akamaru looked up at him from his spot in front of the couch and his feet, and whimpered as if to say that he was bored.

"So am I. There's nothing to do. I can't take the missions I used to be able to because of Hitori and her stuff. Speaking of which..." he trailed off, his words turning into thoughts and his eyes became unfocused as he went into his own little world.

Idly, he wondered whether she had gotten that wound healed and whether she was okay. The young Inuzuka had no doubt in his mind that mentally she was as strong as an ox, but normal people weren't used to being sliced, stabbed, cut, impaled etc. Then again, she did seem very shocked and shaken up by it, so now all he had to do was figure out how the hell it happened.

Obviously she wouldn't tell him if he asked her, but he had a feeling that there was more to her than anyone else knew, him especially. This mission seemed to be quite a pain, and if there was going to be more of these instances where Hitori was running off in the middle of the night and coming back injured, there would be only so much secrecy that he could tolerate. If he was stuck in the middle of it, he would demand to be told about what was _really_ going on...

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Hitori was trying to get permission to do just that. She was having a quick chat with Naruto before going in to see Tsunade about being able to inform Kiba of her mission so that he wouldn't get in the way like she knew he would.

"Well, here's the thing. He's supposed to be with me night and day, even when I'm not in Sozoku. So how can I be expected to be able to complete my mission without his constant presence being a hindrance? It's just impossible, even for me." Hitori explained with slight frustration at it having to come to this. She'd been trying to crack this case for over 3 months now and she'd had enough of waiting around.

"You're probably right. If it's going to get in the way of your true mission, it might be better off to just let him know. You wouldn't even have to tell him what the mission was about, just that you aren't a civilian and that you're on a mission just so he could do his job and you could still do yours. Go and see Tsunade-baachan and explain it to her. I'm sure she'd understand." Naruto responded with careful thought.

"Okay, will do. Thanks Naruto. It was good to see you." Hitori smiled at him genuinely and he returned it and gave her a hug before she walked out of his office and stood in front of the Hokage's office door and took a breath before knocking three times.

"Come in!" she heard Tsunade say from behind the door and she opened it, walked in until she stood in front of the desk and bowed respectfully.

"Hokage-sama. I need to speak with you about my mission." Hitori said politely and professionally whilst looking the older woman dead in the eye.

"I think I know what the problem is already. Go ahead, what's wrong?" the blonde asked and folded her hands together and rested her chin on them.

"Inuzuka Kiba's mission to protect 'Misaki' is coinciding with my mission to bust Jinoichi's ring. I went out the other night after he'd fallen asleep to inspect a warehouse and I'm loathe to admit that I underestimated their security systems and I ended up getting a small wound. It took all I had to get away without being discovered and when I got back to the club, I realised that I wouldn't be able to use my chakra to heal myself since a shinobi as good as Kiba would be disturbed easily by it. I was forced to wake him up and get him to help me since I'd lost too much blood and I wouldn't have been able to stay conscious long enough to patch myself up." Hitori spoke with confidence, but there was twinges of anger in her tone here and there.

"I thought so. So what would you like to do about it?" Tsunade asked, trusting in Hitori to make a good choice.

"I was hoping to get your permission to reveal my cover as a civilian and tell him that I'm actually on a mission, at the least." she responded without missing a beat and watched silently as the woman thought about the situation.

"Would you like me to assign him to the mission instead? Maybe he could help you out." Tsunade offered, even though she had already gauged that Hitori would turn that offer down without a second thought.

"No. I'd much prefer to work on my own. I just want to make sure that he'll be out of the way when I need him to be, and still be able to maintain our cover as civilian and bodyguard." Hitori tried not to smirk, knowing that Tsunade was teasing her a little bit.

"Didn't think so. Well, I give you permission to reveal the facts about the mission. If you just merely tell him that you are on a mission, he may get curious. If you tell him everything, he'll probably be smart enough to stay out of your way. Thank you for coming to see me before it became a problem. Dismissed." the woman said with finality, going back to the paperwork she was completing earlier.

"Thank you." Hitori bowed and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her and began heading home.

That was one problem solved. Now all she had to do was wait for the weekend so that she could actually tell Kiba and continue doing her mission as she had been before that troublesome boy came along.

* * *

The weekend came, and Hitori stood at the village gates, watching the sun and the clouds move and change shape as they went across the sky. It was extremely windy, so she had her travelling cloak with the hood on to keep the wind off her as much as possible. She heard the excited trot of a ninken and she knew that Kiba wouldn't be far behind.

Akamaru came up beside her and jumped up happily, nearly bowling her over, and she chuckled a bit as she steadied herself. Kiba roused on the ninken a little bit, kind of expecting Hitori to get knocked over, but it didn't seem to phase her too much and he smiled a little when he heard her laugh as she scratched behind the Akamaru's ears.

"Morning." he said to her and she glanced at him quickly, still smiling from Akamaru's antics and nodded her head in return and he noticed that she wasn't taking a pack like she normally would, and was also dressed in much more shinobi like clothing than she had done before since they were plain black and fitted comfortably and a travelling cloak.

He looked at the area where he knew she was wounded last week and watched her for a moment, looking for any signs that it might not be properly healed yet, which would mean that they would have to take it easy on the way there, but she caught his eye and realised what his curiousness was for.

"It's fine. Sakura healed it when I got back." she answered simply and and he nodded with a small relieved smile.

Without another word, they set out on the same journey that they would make twice a week for however long it took for Hitori to crack this mission and bust Jinoichi's men and all the illegal drugs, weapons and everything else they were shipping across the country. Speaking of which, as they continued to travel, Hitori tried to figure out how to go about telling Kiba until Akamaru barked at her for attention and she smiled at him before going back to running.

As per usual, the only stop they made was at the dango stall, where Hitori got her usual, and Kiba got a stick for him and one for Akamaru, who was totally loving the treatment he got on the weekends, with the dango, nice dog food and their leftovers from the restaurant in the club and hours on end lazing around.

About 2 kilometres before they arrived, Hitori thought she felt such a fine prickle of chakra that was there for such a short, fleeting moment that she didn't even bother to let herself dwell on it, but subconsciously increased her guard, in case something were to happen, but nothing happened and all three of them walked into Sozoku with both good and bad feelings about it.

Mostly everyone here was a criminal, or was going to be sooner or later, but the liveliness of the place, and the dark nature of almost everything that went on actually made them feeling fairly comfortable, since ninja weren't the most moral of people themselves, some knowing that much more than others.

They walked into the club a bit after they arrived in Sozoku and Aisa was behind the bar already, just wiping down the counter with an extremely displeased and bored look on her face which changed dramatically into a relieved and happy grin when Akamaru, Kiba and Misaki came into her sights.

She grabbed out three beer glasses and three shot glasses that she had sitting separately in preparation for their arrival and began filling them up straight away. Both shinobi went upstairs and put their things down in the room and Hitori let Jinoichi know they had arrived before they both sat down at the bar and Akamaru sniffed around the place for a moment then he jumped up and put his two front paws on the bar counter, startling Aisa a bit before she cracked up laughing at him, gave him a pat and disappeared for a moment and came out from behind the bar and put a bowl of water on the floor for the ninken, who lapped it up happily, making droplets of water fall on the floor.

The three clinked their beer glasses together in a silent toast, and both Aisa and Misaki made their funny inside noise and then they all downed their beer and took the shot straight afterwards then proceeding to make a satisfied sigh as if they'd been waiting for this all day, and they basically had been.

"How are you all?" Aisa asked conversationally as she filled up both Kiba and Misaki's beer glasses again and handed them back full of the amber liquid.

"I'm not too bad. Much better now that I've got a beer in hand." Kiba said with a chuckle and took a mouthful of said beer. Akamaru piped up with a bark and Kiba spoke for him. "Akamaru said he's glad to see you."

As usual, Misaki didn't talk but just barely nodded with a small smile on her face when Aisa looked at her, which was her own way of saying that she was fine since she didn't usually speak too much. While Aisa talked away about her week, and how boring it was without her, Kiba and the large ninken who had made himself very comfortable on the cool floor, there to liven up the place.

She was in the mood for talking even less than usual today, so she stayed mostly quiet unless either Kiba or Aisa said something funny, and she'd chuckle a little, or when either one asked her something. Other than that, she just had a bit of an odd feeling about things. It felt like she knew something was going to go wrong, but she didn't have such a big feeling of dread over whatever might happen.

It was something she got from time to time, but it was only occasionally that there was actually some sort of hugely significant event that matched with her hunch, when other times it was just something small. The last time she had it was when a mission went bad recently.

Hitori had been covering for an ANBU buntaicho who was currently out of commission, and she had been the one to save the day and lead the mission which was to infiltrate a mob's hideout and steal back a valuable jewel that they had stolen from the leader of a nearby village. The mob itself had a few hundred people and they actually had hidden themselves in an old abandoned military fort which was built into the mountains further up north.

She had felt like something bad was going to happen and it turned out that they had seen passing ninja earlier during the day and thought that they were after them and they had gone back to the village and gotten hostages, without the ANBU team knowing until it was already too late, and one of the hostages had nearly been killed because of a slip-up made by one of the newer recruits on the team who had decided to turn and fight, instead of run and just focus on their objective.

Only a moment before the hostage had been killed, Hitori had broken into the room where they were holding them, which was also the room where the jewel was being kept, and she had incapacitated the man who was holding the knife to the hostages throat and ordered her team to get out of there immediately. The bad feeling she had subsided straight away, and she knew that the hostage nearly being killed was just too close for comfort.

She had nearly beaten the new recruit within an inch of his life, but only held back because she knew how different ANBU missions were to regular shinobi missions and that normally, if you didn't think you had a choice, you would stand and fight, not run and recalculate on how to achieve your goal. The best way to learn was experience, and being out of commission because your superior beat you up for being stupid wouldn't help too much. Nevertheless, she did certainly tell him what's what and made him complete the whole training program again.

In the end, the hostages had been saved, and the jewel recovered, so everything had gone well enough, but Hitori knew that it was mostly her experience that allowed her to figure that out that something was wrong, even on a subconscious level, judging by how alert all the guards seemed, as well as the other men just walking around, doing whatever.

Idly, she sat and half-listened to the conversation happening between the blonde bartender, and the brunette shinobi, and Aisa seemed to pick up on the fact that Misaki just didn't feel up to talking today, and just left her be and filled up her glass twice before Misaki decided to go and get a bit of sleep before having dinner and doing the show tonight. Kiba stayed to talk with Aisa but Akamaru decided to trot up the stairs with the dark-haired woman.

Little did she know, Kiba's eyes followed her form all the way up the stairs, and watched even as she went into the room...

* * *

Aisa woke her a few hours later and they had something to eat, Misaki eating considerably less than both Kiba and Aisa, Kiba especially who looked like he was ready for seconds, making Aisa laugh at his massive appetite and proceeding to call him 'Piggy' for the next few minutes and even Misaki couldn't help but smirk slightly and roll her eyes at the frown-pout that came over his face and she even laughed a little when he muttered something about his sister calling him that when they were younger because apparently he was a bit on the chubby side for a while.

Misaki sat quietly at the small table with them until they were both finished and then she excused herself to start getting her hair and make-up done for the show that night while she did some quiet vocal exercises to warm up her voice. Aisa straightened the long, black locks and put them into a nice up-style, still leaving various bangs floating around here and there meanwhile Misaki put on her usual make up, but with colours matching the dress, which tonight was a shimmery silver piece which sat loosely on her figure, and bunched up in the bust area.

Slowly and casually, she got ready and soon enough it was time for her to get dressed and she wasn't even bothered to plod off to the bathroom and get changed, so she stripped off the 3 times too big pyjama shirt, and the pair of boxers she had on and slipped the dress, making sure that Kiba was too busy 'talking' to Akamaru to notice.

A few minutes later, Aisa went downstairs to start getting ready to serve customers, and Misaki put on the finishing touches such as jewellery, shoes and whatever else needed to be done. Kiba watched as she lifted her leg up and rested her foot on the dressing table to do up each high-heel and she grew a few inches taller thanks to them and she quickly sprayed a bit of perfume that smelt like a sweet vanilla and he licked his lips subconsciously as she turned her head to spray a little on her neck area.

With one last look in the mirror, she turned to him with slightly slumped shoulders, and a hand on her hip casually, her eyes glowing green against the metallic silver eye shadow and jet black mascara and she just tilted her head in the direction of the door as if to say that she was going go to go downstairs now.

He nodded and made sure that Akamaru had plenty of water and food in his bowls and gave the ninken a pat before he walked over with her, and was gentlemanly enough to open the door for her and dramatically gestured for her to come out as he held it open for her, and much to his surprise, even though she rolled her eyes a little at first, a shockingly genuine, yet tired smile came across her face.

Normally, her face still have a certain level of blankness even when she smirked, her eyes especially, but it didn't seem like she felt bothered to put on that mask right now and there was a hint of worry as well as exhaustion in her eyes, and a bit of disappointment in their depths. He stared at her, slightly mesmerised at how open her expression was and watched as she continued past him and down the door that led to the back stage area.

He went downstairs after her, just going the normal way, and took up the same seat he had last week at the bar, so he could talk to Aisa while the show was going on and she wasn't busy. After the quick sound check was done, the lights dimmed as usual and the band walked out and got their instruments and Misaki stepped up to the front of the stage where the microphone was situated.

The Inuzuka male listened to her speak as she thanked the guests for coming and introduced a new song that they'd be playing first up tonight. He glanced at Aisa, to see if she had any information on it, but she shrugged her shoulders while pouring a beer for a customer.

It was a bit of a different style, and it seemed like it was a bit more of a rock ballad than the ones they usually played. The introduction was short and Misaki's voice resounded around the room with some lyrics that made his mind just go crazy as he watched her eyes shut with concentration and gently swayed to the slow beat of the song.

 _'And I'd give up forever to touch you,_  
Cause I know that you'd feel me somehow.  
You're the closest to heaven I'll ever be,  
And I don't want to go home right now.

 _And all I can taste is this moment,_  
And all I can breathe is your life.  
Cause sooner or later it's over,  
I just don't want to miss you tonight.'

To emphasise the lyrics, she used her arms and hands while she moved her hips from side to side and everyone in the crowd really seemed to like the new song and they all applauded very, very loudly when the song was finished and Misaki smiled happily and thanked them before continuing onto the next song, which was a simple acoustic piece which he remembered brought a few people in the crowd to tears last week, and it achieved that same thing again.

It was truly amazing to see the woman who was normally so closed off (aside from the open expression she had earlier on) put so much pure emotion into her singing that it was enough to literally make people wipe their eyes from how beautiful they thought the song was.

Kiba certainly wasn't wiping his eyes, but his heart was beating so damn fast he thought it might just decide to grow legs, jump right out of his chest and run a marathon or two. He couldn't even look at the woman on stage who truly did look angelic with the shimmering silver material she was wearing with the stage lights shining down on her.

He tried desperately to not let his own mind get the better of him, but it had been happening ever since he met her. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he loved how volatile and unpredictable she was. It made her interesting, fleeting and amusing all at the same time. He did get annoyed by how harsh she could be sometimes, but he had a feeling that it was because she wasn't used to being 'nice' to people. He recalled his talk with Aisa today, which had helped him figure her out a little more...

_"She looks really tired. Is everything alright?" Aisa asked with concern as they watched the dark-haired woman stroll casually up the stairs and in through the bedroom door._

_"I don't know. She doesn't talk to me. She wouldn't even if I asked. The other day she...uh...just seemed spaced out, and I asked her what was wrong and she told me off, saying that I'm getting in her way and that I shouldn't ask questions about her or what she does." Kiba said, just recovering after nearly telling Aisa about the 'incident' last week._

_"Hey. That girl's got secrets, stuff she doesn't want anyone to know, and probably things she doesn't want to know herself. She doesn't talk to me much about personal stuff, but I can tell that she's just not good with people. She acts cold towards most people, but I think it's because no one has ever really treated her kindly." Aisa theorised with uncharacteristic seriousness and a hint of concern flickered in her blue eyes._

_"Yeah, that makes sense. After a while of being treated like shit by other people, you'd end up giving up on trying to be nice and do the same thing. She's nice to you though." he replied, nodding his head in agreement with Aisa's wise words._

_"That may be true, but it's not like I just instantly got along with her. Eventually she began to drop the cold act, and talk to me a little more each time she came here, and now I'd say that she's gotten used to me. She doesn't seem to have much faith in people, and I think that she's seen some horrible things, so it's probably really hard for her to open up to anyone." Aisa continued as she did a few random little things behind the bar._

_"Hmm...I just don't like how she snaps at me for stupid, trivial things. It's like, I'm with her all the time, the least she could do is just make a grudging peace with me." he made sure to say that they were together 24/7, sticking to the cover story._

_"I understand that. She was like that with me at first." Aisa stopped and thought about her next words for a moment, confusing Kiba before she continued. "Kiba, answer me honestly. Are you starting to care about her?"_

_Kiba's expression dead-panned completely and he didn't react for a minute or two, just stood at the blonde, who stared right back, with eyes more piercing than he ever expected from the sweet and genuine woman that seemed to be incredibly perceptive._

_"I...I...I think so." he finally admitted with a sigh, not just to Aisa, but to himself as well._

_It was hard for him to finally accept all the feelings he'd been pushing back, but he was just enamoured with her. There was never a dull moment, even though being yelled at for no apparent reason wasn't a good thing, it was definitely something different. She wasn't like most girls, civilians in particular, who quite often spoke to him like he was just 'some guy'._

_But the green-eyed woman never spoke to him like that. Sure, she tended to be a little cruel, but at least she actually bothered with him enough to be cruel, where as other people she just wouldn't speak to. He had noticed though, that she was slowly being a bit calmer and nicer to him. They had actually had a decent, though small and a little awkward conversation over dango on the way to Sozoku earlier today about Akamaru and how long he'd had him for and a few other things._

_When she had spoken to him then, she had been quite nice and she had intently listened to everything he had said, and she didn't say much in return, but the little things she did say were friendly and fairly open, taking him by surprise._

_Aisa watched him, knowing that he was much softer on the inside than maybe even he himself realised. She just hoped that Misaki wouldn't hurt him. As much as she liked Misaki and thought of her as a good friend, she knew that her inexperience with treating people like 'friends' was her downfall in these kinds of things. If she tried being a little less closed off, she might feel comfortable enough to talk to someone who cared about her, like Kiba or herself._

_She just wanted to see Misaki happy, and Kiba too. As they changed the subject casually, both of their thoughts still ran along the same lines until it had been long enough for them to forget..._

As he sat there for the whole show, his mind was running amok and he was trying to sort himself out while he got the chance, even though the woman he was slowly becoming infatuated with couldn't have looked more beautiful and he absolutely loved the sound of her voice singing various complex melodies.

When the second last song came around, he had made up his mind. He would see how things went this weekend, and if he still felt the same next week, he would see if he could catch her in a good enough mood to tell her about it and hope that she didn't beat the crap out of him for feeling such silly things when he was supposed to be a smart, and professional jonin level shinobi.

Though with the way she was acting at the moment, which was a little weird, he couldn't be too sure how she'd react to hearing something like that. Either way, she might be back to normal in time for next week, and he didn't really want to go visiting her at her house when she didn't seem to be his biggest fan sometimes, he really doubted that she hated him. Disliked, maybe. Hated, probably not.

A few minutes later, the show was over and he watched as Misaki bowed and thanked the audience for coming and went through the curtains to the back stage area. The patrons began filing out slowly, and Kiba helped pack up by collecting up glasses off all the tables for Aisa and being enough of a smart-ass/show-off to pick up a huge bunch of glasses that looked like they would drop and smash all over the floor at any given second, and take them over to the bar and Aisa was relieved when he placed them down on the counter top.

When everyone had gone, and the doors closed and locked for the night, Misaki appeared out of nowhere, as usual, wearing the kimono with the ocean pattern on it, hanging off her shoulders without even a tie around her, looking like she was ready for bed.

"I'm going to bed. I feel rather worn out. Kiba, when you come in, do it silently." Misaki said with a tired expression and she walked off, her bare feet dragging on the floor, as if she wasn't even bothered to lift them properly.

He sighed as he watched her go, wondering what on earth he was going to do...


	6. Crazy

**Chapter 6 - Crazy**

As Kiba slowly walked up the stairs, ready to get into bed after letting Akamaru outside for a quick run (and to go to the toilet), the large ninken playfully leaping up three or four stairs at a time, making Kiba smirk and shake his head at his companion's antics and when they got to the bedroom door, they both started using the quietest movements they could, which were silent for shinobi standards.

The door opened and shut with only a tiny squeak and click, and both man and his dog walked over to their side of the room, Kiba standing next to the futon and Akamaru curling up in front of the heater. Kiba got some clothes out of his pack to change into, since his tidiest pair of long black pants, and the only nice button up shirt he owned, in a dark maroon colour probably wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in.

"Oi."

A voice sounded throughout the room and he nearly wet himself with shock until he realised that it was Hitori, and he could just see her laying on the large bed, with her grey eyes glaring at him thanks to the moonlight coming in from the window.

"I thought I said to come in silently...Tch, and you call yourself a shinobi." she scoffed at him quietly with a slightly amused huff before rolling over, to have her back facing him.

He snorted in disbelief. "As if that would have woken you."

"Don't you recall last week when you said that I might have learnt something from being around shinobi all the time? I did insinuate that I had, didn't I? You woke me because I know how to listen, even when I'm asleep." she said, rolling back over to look at him while they talked, or argued, more or less.

"So I was right. You do know a little bit about controlling your chakra." he smirked, quite enjoying being right about such a secretive woman.

"Yes, you are right. Happy now?" Hitori responded with a dull tone.

"Why, yes. I am actually." his tone was a little sharp and definitely sarcastic but he spoke normally again moments later. "So, did you go to the academy for a while or something?" the Inuzuka inquired, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Hmm. I wasn't there for too long." she answered, her tone back to normal as well.

"Did you drop out because you didn't like it or something?" he continued to question her, trying to get answers from her while she was going to give them to him, even though he watched her eyes narrow at him.

Instead of responding, like he hoped she would, she seemed to pick up on his inquisitiveness and gave him nothing more than a unreadable groan, and rolled over onto her back with her arms crossed behind her head. He took that as his queue to stop asking questions, so he did and went back to getting changed.

Hitori's eyes opened and flicked over to see what Kiba was doing after she heard quiet rustling coming from that direction and they widened considerably when she saw him standing there, shirtless, wearing only a pair of cotton boxers that didn't leave much to the imagination as he turned his sleeping shirt the right way out. The light filtering through the window gave him an almost luminescent glow and she couldn't help but stare with half-lidded, tired eyes and watch the rippling of his muscles as he moved.

She snapped herself out of it and a small, low growl escaped her as she averted her eyes pointedly at the roof, as if cursing whatever was high above them, in the clouds. Kiba's dark eyes looked over to her, and suddenly he smelt something and he put his guard up straight away, but he relaxed after he took it in and it was more amazing than the various gentle perfumes that Misaki wore, and it made him bite his lip. Hard.

He knew it was a familiar scent but it was too faint for even him to figure out what it was but, since the overpowering smells of cigarette smoke, alcohol, and the almost metaphorical smell of criminal activity coming in from the window basically masked everything, and he only smelt it for a moment before it faded away again, no matter how hard he concentrated on it.

Hitori felt his chakra spike, and without making it too obvious that it drew her attention, she casually glanced over to him as if wondering what he was doing, even though she really was, but for a different reason. She caught his eye, and raised an eyebrow in confusion and spoke.

"What _are_ you doing?" her voice laced with flawless nonchalance.

"Nothing. I thought I smelt something. It's gone now." he said, clearly trying to shake something off his mind and she watched in confusion, wondering why he thought smelt something, and she tried to listen for anything suspicious going on in the nearby area, but couldn't hear anything.

For another minute or two, she thought about what he could have picked up on, until she looked back at him just as he was folding his clothes, and laying them down on a shelf in the small closet next to his futon and it hit her.

What he smelt was... _her._

She abruptly realised that she may have been a little affected by his being half-naked, as loathe as she was to admit it. Since Kiba barely seemed to pick up on it, she gathered that it mustn't have been much, but his powerful nose was definitely not something to sneeze at, nor underestimate.

The young woman knew that Kiba was the pride of the Inuzuka clan, from hearing conversations around the village and that he would definitely be one of the strongest shinobi they had ever produced in a year or two when he hit his prime as a ninja. She knew that he was strong, and maybe even stronger than he himself realised, just from going off what she felt with that tiny chakra spike when his guard immediately went up instinctively.

Trying to forget her little slip-up and move on, she watched as he got under the covers of the futon and raised a brow as he spent the next two minutes rolling around trying to get comfortable. When he finally stopped, she sighed silently and shut her eyes, trying to will herself to go back to sleep.

With a growl of frustration, Kiba started to shift again and Hitori's eyes opened and focused to glare at him again. He felt the weight of her stare, and turned around to speak, and try to convince her not to get angry with him because it was the crappy futons fault, but she got in first.

"If you are going to be rolling around all fucking night, just get in here so I can get some god-damn sleep, yeah." she said with restrained anger and continued to glare at him, her grey eyes piercing through his dark ones.

"Seriously?" was all he could muster, actually shocked that she was showing a bit of compassion, even if it was fuelled by her desire to get a decent night's sleep.

"Do you want me to change my mind?" she threatened with a sharp tone and narrowed eyes, still burning hot with flames of the metaphorical fuse that was decreasing in size rapidly.

"Nope." he said almost too quick for it to be coherent, and it seemed to take everything he had not to run and dive bomb onto the bed, so she rolled her eyes and moved as far over as she could without falling off the edge of the bed to make room for him.

He grinned happily as he clambered under the covers and sighed in satisfaction at how much of a sleep trap this mattress was. It wasn't too soft, and not too firm and he felt like he was laying on a cloud and continued to lay there with a stupid grin on his face before he was literally smacked out of his trance by Hitori whacking him upside the head.

"Get that stupid look off your face and go to sleep." she scolded as she rolled to have her back facing him, and shut her eyes.

"Thanks." he muttered quickly, and she only responded with a non-committal sound from the back of her throat and he smiled before getting comfortable and falling into a deep sleep...

* * *

It was quite a pleasant morning, and Kiba woke feeling quite well rested before Aisa could come in a wake the both of them and he didn't even bother to open his eyes until he felt something he didn't remember falling asleep with. He wasn't too surprised, since it was morning after all, but he was a little shocked at what seemed to be the cause of it.

From what he could gather after he opened his eyes and looked, he and Hitori had both shifted in their sleep and were _much_ closer than he could have expected. She was still facing away from him, but her back was nearly touching his chest, and her body was bent so that her rear end stuck out a little and it was basically pressed right up against his 'private area' that was considerably _stiff_ , so to speak.

He knew that she would probably wake up as soon as he moved even the tiniest bit, since they usually got up about this time, but he refused to give up and decided to attempt to use every bit of stealth that his half-asleep body could manage and get out of bed and into the bathroom before she realised what had happened.

Trying not to freak out completely at the situation he had gotten himself in, he enacted his plan, which failed almost straight away when she groaned and moved back a bit, as if not happy that he moved away from her, which definitely drove him nuts.

As he slowly kept moving away from her, she didn't seem to be too disturbed and he successfully got out of the bed, and mentally sighed with relief once he had achieved that. He quickly grabbed some clean clothes from his pack, and Akamaru woke up and drearily watched as his master went straight for the bathroom, sporting something that confused the ninken.

Hitori was woken when the bathroom door shut and she lazily rolled over to see that Kiba was no longer in the bed, but she saw that the bathroom door was shut and the shower was running, making it obvious as to where he was. Akamaru got up and went over to her to say good morning. She gave him a scratch behind the ears, and the woman decided to get up and take him outside to the toilet. With a stretch, she put her feet on the ground and led the ninken downstairs and out to the back door, which led to a small area behind the club with a bit of grass and a storage shed for tables, chairs, and any bar stock that they might need.

She heard the side door open after the locked clicked, and she presumed that Jinoichi had arrived. As soon as the scent of cigar smoke wafted in her direction, she knew she was correct and she knew that he would have seen her by now, since she was casually leaning up against the door frame watching the ninken run around happily.

"Misaki-chan! Good morning!" she heard from behind her and she didn't even bother to turn around and greet him fully, just merely looked over her shoulder from the corner of her eye and made an indifferent sound of greeting.

"I wanted to speak to you about something, so I'm glad I've caught you." he said, trying to get her attention, so she complied and turned around to look at him. "I would like you to do some promotion for the club tonight again. It's been a while, and the younger crowd always bring in a lot of money. So if you wouldn't mind finished a little early and going over to Shuuya after the show tonight for an hour or so, I would appreciate it." he continued with slight hesitation, knowing how much she hated that place.

Shuuya was a nightclub also owned by Jinoichi, but he had placed Sakamoto, who was also her manager in charge of the place. He got a lot of money out of it since it was extremely popular with people around the age of 18 to 26 and occasionally he would send Misaki and Aisa over to promote the club just to get some extra customers and money into the place. Shuuya meant 'all-night' and in a city like this, a place like that just kept going, and going literally all-night suited fairly well, so even when Misaki finished her performance at midnight, the place would still be full of people.

If looks could kill, she knew that Jinoichi's head would just spontaneously combust at the very moment he mentioned the name 'Shuuya' and her in the same sentence. Unfortunately though, his head didn't explode and she knew that she would have to go to that filthy place after the show tonight, so she continued to glare off into space and didn't bother to say anything.

"Thank you. Just please stay there for an hour or so and get some customers over here for the next week or so. I will inform Sakamoto about you going there." he still spoke with hesitation, but tried to keep his voice from wavering, even though it failed terribly.

With a sigh, she decided to head back upstairs since Akamaru was satisfied with his little run and toilet stop. She went up the stairs and watched with mild amusement as Kiba nearly threw the bedroom door off it's hinges just as she stood in front of it and reached out to open it. He sighed with relief and she presumed that he was worried about Akamaru's whereabouts.

"Jeez, don't do that again. You scared the shit out of me." he sounded relieved and shook his head with another sigh but got a little confused as to why Hitori was just blatantly staring at his face, with a black, shaped brow raised and a corner of her mouth turned upwards in a barely there smirk.

"Your towel." she pointed towards the ground and he looked down to see that in his state of concern, he had forgotten to hold his towel up and it had fallen into a damp heap at his feet, revealing _everything_.

He cursed and picked it back up, wrapping it around himself as quick as he could, and nearly dropping it again in the process, and he looked back up after he'd covered himself to see Hitori purposely averting her eyes and staring into space for the sake of his modesty.

"Sorry." he muttered awkwardly, for lack of not knowing what else to say and she glanced back at him before merely shrugging with her smirk growing and walking past him into the bedroom.

"Akamaru was fine. I was just letting him out to have a quick run since you were having a shower." she explained simply with a bored tone, even though she was trying not to laugh at him for his earlier exposure.

"I was worried about both of you. I thought you'd run off somewhere, and I just wasn't sure where Akamaru went." he blurted out before he realised just what he'd said and he snapped his head towards Hitori to gauge her reaction but she just looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes and an unreadable expression.

Instead of thinking too much about it, she turned away and headed for the bedroom door, intending on waking Aisa up. It was pretty rare that she got up before the blonde did, but Kiba's being around changed things up a little bit. He was starting to get under her skin, especially with the 'falling-towel' stunt and the getting changed right in front of her number from last night.

She knocked on Aisa's door and stepped inside to find her just about to get out of bed. The blonde was stretching and yawning and smiled once she realised Misaki was standing in the doorway who continued to lean up against the doorway as the other woman swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

"Morning. Since when are you up before me?" she asked, half-yawning again.

"Since Kiba woke me when he got up to have a shower. It was rather amusing actually, I went downstairs and let Akamaru out, and when I came back, he thought we'd gone off somewhere without him and dropped his towel without realising it." she spoke casually, even though on the inside she was still cracking up laughing over it.

Aisa's jaw dropped in shock and intrigue lit up her still-tired blue eyes. "So he wasn't wearing anything underneath?" she asked, a little bewildered at Misaki's story.

"No. I did avert my eyes for the sake of his modesty, but it was all a bit hard to miss." Misaki admitted, making Aisa laugh and continue to keep her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Did you see if he was, you know..." Aisa mouthed the word 'big' and held her hands a small distance apart from each other, indicating length.

"Rather substantial, from what I saw." the dark-haired woman drawled, her tone revealing a little amusement and Aisa knew that she was speaking like that because she definitely was surprised by what she had seen and probably never expected to see of Kiba.

"Oh, you should so get in with him. I bet he'd be awesome in the sack." Aisa threw her head back and sighed dramatically.

"And why would I want to do that? Why don't you, hmm?" Misaki retorted, not missing a beat as per usual.

"Trust me, you'd need it more than I would, honey. Besides, I know you think he's attractive. He's a pretty decent guy too." she shrugged and smiled in a way that Misaki couldn't quite put her finger on.

"If I felt the need to seduce Kiba, or anyone for that matter, I would. But I don't. So, problem solved. _Anyway._ The reason I came to wake you is to let you know that we're going to Shuuya tonight after the show. We're just going to finish a bit early." the older woman explained and cringed a little when Aisa yelped happily with an almost ear piercing pitch.

"Yes! We haven't been there in forever. It's about time we go back." Aisa exclaimed, clearly excited and happy about being able to go to Shuuya tonight, since they usually weren't supposed to.

"I was rather enjoying not going there since forever." Misaki glared to one side, that being the direction that Shuuya was in.

"Well, you're just boring. I love going there. It's so much fun! We get to drink and dance for free since we work here." she said as she danced around the room happily, heading roughly towards her closet and when she got there, she immediately began to rummage around for clothes to wear and a few moments later, she dug out a nice top and a pair of pants and laid them out on her bed.

"Are you done? I'd like for us all to have some breakfast, if you wouldn't mind." Misaki interrupted her, but she didn't realise how much worse she'd made things until she saw that proverbial glint that Aisa got in her eye when she was planning something.

"You know, we're going to have to get you some clothes for this. You can't exactly wear a formal dress to Shuuya!"

* * *

As per usual, Misaki continued to groan and glare as Aisa picked some clothes out for her, while Kiba just watched with idle amusement. Eventually they found a nice pale grey-blue top, that had a black panther print on it. Misaki merely shrugged at the sight of it, which meant that it was acceptable so they picked out her size and moved on.

When Kiba saw a pair of long, black pants with several pockets, zips and buttons on it, he thought that Misaki would find it decent enough, and he pulled them off the rack and Misaki glanced at him before looking at the pants and smirking lightly. That was more her style. Aisa seemed to like them as well, so again they got the correct size and purchased both items before going back to the club.

Even though she knew Shuuya just annoyed the crap out of her, with all the young adults who were just completely intoxicated and had no idea of what was really going on around them and in the world, Aisa's excitement seemed to be getting to Kiba, since he hadn't been able to do something like this before, and that almost made her a little excited. That was until she realised how weird that was and promptly shoved her excitement into the back of her mind.

The only interesting thing about the place was that they never paid anything to get in, and they drank as much as they want for free. When Aisa told Kiba that they could drink as much as they wanted for nothing, he looked at Misaki and even she smirked a bit, letting him know that was the only thing she'd go there for.

"Sounds like it's going to be a fun night then." Kiba laughed and Aisa nodded in agreement while Misaki just stared off into space, as normal.

* * *

Soon enough, it was time for Misaki to start getting ready for the show, and Aisa went downstairs to do a few things that would make it easier for her to finish her jobs quickly after so that they could go straight over to Shuuya.

Kiba and Akamaru were in the bedroom and were watching Hitori do the insanely quick, but impressive job of make-up. Tonight, she had decided to wear the new dress that she had gotten last week, so she had kept her eyes dark and smoky, to accentuate the effect of the black dress and shoes she had to go with the outfit and it would suit the clothes she was wearing to Shuuya afterwards as well.

Since Aisa wasn't there to tell her, she turned to Kiba and asked him if she had done it evenly on both sides, and he froze for a moment, just noting the sheer difference and the beauty that she showed. She really knew how to bring out the silver in her eyes and he struggled just to nod in response to her question.

He watched as she did her hair and then went to get changed, being too lazy to go into the bathroom and untied her kimono and let it fall off her shoulders, before she stopped abruptly, and slowly turned her head to stare at him blankly until he realised what he was doing.

She finished getting changed after he turned his head away, and he was glad that she didn't need him to zip it up, because as soon as he looked at her, he knew that if he got within arms-reach of her, he couldn't be held responsible for what happened. The dress looked absolutely amazing, and he could see the pale skin of her back, as well as a fairly bad scar on the left side of her back which was about 20 centimetres long, but it was so faint that he could only see it because of the lighting in the room.

"Hey, how'd you get that scar?" he asked without even realising that he was speaking until after she turned around to look at him.

"Long story." she responded cryptically and looked back towards the mirror as she did the finishing touches on her hair and make-up.

"We've got time." he pressed gently, not wanting to anger her, but merely just let her know that she could speak to him if she wanted to.

She turned towards him and went to glare, but the genuine concern that was in his dark eyes melted her icy glare and her expression softened as well. For a few moments, she toyed with taking this opportunity to tell him what she had been trying to pick her moment to tell him all day, but when Aisa knocked on the door and opened it, saying that the sound check was ready to go, she looked at him as if to say that they'd talk about it later, and just went downstairs instead.

Kiba being dressed and ready for the night ahead trailed behind, leaving Akamaru, much to the ninkens dismay, by himself in the bedroom. As Misaki walked out the back towards the back-stage area, she tried to get the image of Kiba out of her head. When he had questioned her about the scar, it was the first time she had seen him since he'd gotten ready, and she was a little shocked, so to speak.

He was wearing his long, black dress pants, with a nice pair of leather shoes, and he had a crisp white shirt on with faint grey stripes here and there that he had purchased today, when they went out to buy Misaki's outfit for later on. As per usual, he didn't wear his hitai-ate and was clean-shaven, but there just seemed to be something different about him. His hair was still scruffy and he looked the same as he normally did, but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

She glanced just over her shoulder at him as they parted ways, since he sat out the front, acting as a undercover bodyguard and security, like always. He went over to the bar and took his usual seat, and Aisa served him a beer, and smiled at him kindly while the small sound check went on just to make sure everything was working correctly before they started playing. It only took a few minutes because nothing ever changed, and customers were already pouring in.

Half an hour later, they lights dimmed as they normally did, and the band walked out of stage and began playing a quite tune as they lights came back on. Kiba nearly died at the sight of Misaki's new dress and he absolutely went crazy over how low cut it was and how much skin it showed. He was surprised she actually was game enough to wear something like that.

Everything went well, up until about half way through the show, when a clearly drunk man walked in the door and took a seat near the front of the stage. Kiba could tell that he was very intoxicated so he kept an eye on him, but after he had another drink he started making a scene and making noise throughout the song that the band were currently playing and he was already on his guard and ready to be at her side in at a moment's notice and half-standing up.

When he realised that no one was paying any attention to him, he threw a beer glass at Misaki, who avoided it and caught it in her hand without it smashing at the last second. Both Kiba and Aisa watched with concern, knowing how pissed off she would be, and the band stopped playing as the man starting stumbling up towards the stage.

Kiba was over there in a second, but Misaki was already taking care of it. She stepped down off the stage, grabbed the man by his collar and threw him down onto the nearest table, very nearly breaking it in half with the force of the impact. Jinochi had also come out of his office to see what was going on and was watching the whole scene unfold from the door of his office, which looked down over the club floor.

"Hey." Misaki whispered very quietly and with venom in her voice. "You don't come in here and disrupt _my_ show without getting the shit beaten out of you, but you don't _ever..._ make a fool of that man up there," she said, pointing towards the leader of the Tora, who was glaring down at the man with cold eyes, "and live to see another day without begging for your life. Juran, take him to Jinoichi." she called out to a security guard who grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and dragged him towards the man now coming down the stairs.

She brushed herself off and flipped her hair back to it's original position, and went to go back on stage, but Kiba caught her hand and stopped her. It took her a second to realise why she couldn't move forward, but she turned around and saw him looking incredibly worried. He went to speak, but it didn't come out the first time.

"...you okay?" he eventually got out and she almost smiled at the shaky voice he spoke with.

With a single nod, she reassured him that she wasn't hurt, just a bit frustrated, and he let go after a moment and she stepped back up onto the stage and apologised to the other patrons about the disturbance and continued on with the show, finishing an hour early as organised.

Quickly she bolted out back-stage after they finished, and got changed into the new outfit that Aisa had left on the small table for her, and Aisa left all her work to one of the other girl's who was known for slacking off, and her, Kiba and Misaki went out the side door of the club, and headed off towards Shuuya.


	7. Breathe

**Chapter 7 - Breathe**

Loud music, the smell of sweat, alcohol, and perfume. This was Shuuya and as Kiba, Misaki, and Aisa stepped inside the nightclub, Kiba was amazed, Misaki was bored, and Aisa was excited. The place was crowded and Misaki was certain that there wasn't a sober person in the club. Aisa grinned and clapped her hands in joy as Kiba chuckled at both her and Misaki who was glowering with arms crossed over her chest.

They went straight up to the bar and Misaki ordered for them since she was the only one the bartenders always recognised. No surprise, she ordered not just three, but five drinks, three being for herself and the other two for Aisa and Kiba. One was gone in all of a split second and the other two were gone just as quickly and she got two more before leaving the bar.

After spying a bunch of girls getting up and going to the toilet, they snatched up the table even though there was one girl left, who had stayed to mind said table, but literally ran off to join her friends after a single glare from the small, black-haired woman in the trio.

Kiba didn't recognise any of the people or any of the music, but he could feel the adrenalin and the excitement of doing something he had never done before was kicking in, especially the fact that he was getting various glares from other guys because of the woman whose company he was in and he felt smug at the glares and the scoffs that were directed at Aisa and Misaki for the same, yet opposite reason.

He nearly keeled over when Misaki glared with the very depths of hell shining in her eyes at a woman who tried to talk to him until she got the message and ran off, and tried not to smile as he saw the slight confusion pass through her eyes. Aisa ignored it and showed nothing on her face, but inside she was squealing with delight, hoping that Misaki might finally becoming a little less oblivious to her own feelings.

The blonde knew the shorter girl well enough by now, even with all her swagger and what not, to figure out that she was becoming increasingly confused as to why she continued to look at Kiba, even just idly, when it was not necessary. She also seemed even more confused about Kiba doing small things such as opening a door for her, smiling a little when he caught her eye, watching her with an intense gaze as she performed and making sure that he at least put one hand on her at some point when they were in public.

She was chuckling on the inside, as she watched them stare at each other in a silent battle of unknown wits. Neither of them won, as she decided to see just how far she could push them both before they cracked and gave up this silly 'I-really-hate-you-but-I-want-you-so-bad' song and dance, and just get them to go for it and tear each other's clothes off already.

"Come on, let's go dance!" she said and went to stand up, a grin on her face (but for reasons unknown to her companions) and her hands clapping in excitement.

"Ugh, Aisa. Can't we just sit and drink until I'm unconscious?" Misaki groaned and lazily half-glared at the woman trying to get her to move by dragging her chair out from the table.

"No, because then we'd be here until this time next week! Get up!" Aisa tried pulling Misaki out of her seat, but to no avail. It was then that she got a perfect idea. She leant down to be right next to Misaki's ear, and spoke. "You don't want that skank from before trying to dance with Kiba, do you? I mean he does look quite ravishing tonight, I must say -"

"Alright! I'm up." she yelled as she stood up and downed her last of two drinks all in a few large gulps, making the oblivious Kiba roll his eyes and shake his head at the alcoholic woman.

With a hand grasping Kiba's wrist, and the other hand around Misaki's much smaller wrist, Aisa literally dragged them both out onto the dance floor where she started moving her hips and rolling her head in time with the song while Kiba stood there, completely clueless as to what he should be doing. He'd never actually _danced_ before, so he didn't really know what to do, but he carefully stepped from side to side, keeping in time in an attempt to make it look like he did know what he was doing whilst trying not to laugh at Misaki. He actually fit in more than she did.

"Kiba, you have to make her dance. We'll never attract any attention to the club if she keeps acting like such a sad sack!" Aisa spoke over the sound of the music, even though Kiba's sharpened hearing didn't really need it. He knew that his ears would ring for days after this.

A familiar male Misaki recognised as Juran, the security guard from the club who Aisa secretly had a crush on, walked up to Aisa and started chatting to her, and Misaki's hawk-eyes didn't miss the slouched shoulders, the squaring of the hips and the way he looked her up and down shamelessly and she began to glare at the thought of what might be going through his mind, but before her death-stare could break either of the two out of their conversation, Kiba placed his hands on Misaki's shoulders and turned her around so her back was facing them and he was conveniently standing behind her.

He could smell her and he had to shake his head before he lost himself and just decided to grab her and pull her hips against his, so she could _feel_ exactly how attracted to her he was. Instead he opted for the much smarter option, that would hopefully leave him to survive and see the next day. The scruffy haired man put his lips to the shell of her ear, to make sure she would hear him, even though he couldn't help but enjoy the contact.

"Leave her be. Maybe you should try and get some yourself. You might not be so uptight all the time if you learnt to _let loose_ every once in a while." he said, hoping that this wouldn't cause her to tear him limb from limb.

Kiba watched her stiffen with anger, but then relax and turn her head just far enough around so that he would be able to hear her and see her speak. He could see the slightly smug expression, as if she was gearing up for an impressive comeback and he prepared himself for the retort.

"Just because I don't allow random men to lie with me, that doesn't mean I don't know how to enjoy myself. Thank you very much, Inuzuka." his name rolled off her tongue in what he couldn't mistake and as a sultry tone. Was she trying to test him?

"Sitting in a dark, quiet room with nothing but your own company and a bottle of whiskey doesn't count as 'fun', Misaki." he made sure to match her tone and even took it a little further by stepping closer to her so that she could sense that he was only centimetres away from her and he continued, closing the deal. "You aren't...frigid...are you?"

He closed the gap between their bodies and gently placed his hands on her hips and felt her muscles tense at the contact and just barely heard her growl in response to his words, and he saw her jaw clench and eyes narrow.

This dog-boy was insulting her pride, and still managing to inch his way closer to her. She would not act in such an undignified manner as to beat him to a pulp right here and now, even though her fist instinctively closed in preparation. He was telling her that she basically didn't know how to act like a normal human being, and that she wasn't bold enough to actually explore the more intimate pleasures in life.

She decided that she would show him.

And did she ever. With all the courage she could gather, she threw caution to the wind and rolled her hips against his, making him tense, and his grip on her hips tighten dangerously. Just as he had recovered from the shock of the first roll, she did it again and actually found enjoyment from hearing his breathy groan next to her ear.

Misaki felt him smirk devilishly against her ear and he returned the grind of her hips with one of his own, and soon enough, they were dancing... _somehow_ , even though they weren't really paying attention to anything or anyone around them.

After several minutes of undeniable lust radiating between them, Kiba began to smell something familiar and he struggled to put his finger on where he had smelt it before. The Inuzuka had smelt it before when he had come in to the bedroom the other night and woken her up. He felt Misaki's hands on his own where they sat on her hips, and it clicked with him. It was _her_. It was Misaki's arousal that he could smell, and it sent him over the brink.

He had been pushed to far, and now he would not turn back. He would have her tonight, no matter how many times she protested, he would show her what he could do and what he could make her feel. Kiba spun the dark-haired woman around to face him, where she seemed to snap out of it, and realise what she was really doing but before she could punch him, or just run away, Kiba used his hand to wrap around her head and stop her from pulling away as he pushed his lips onto her own.

With utter shock, she didn't react at all for at least a minute, and it seemed that Kiba really wasn't going to give up. Even though she knew she would regret it later, she couldn't deny that the Inuzuka boy, or man, as she could feel quite prominently, was making her want to do some things much unlike herself. She didn't bother to fight, and just gave in, having enough of being so uptight all the time and knowing that she would more than likely thoroughly enjoy this.

She kissed him back, and pulled on his hair, and his separated his lips from hers to grin and growl deep in his chest as the lust he felt for the woman in his arms continued, soaring with every touch, every breath and every second that went by.

No words were spoken, and none needed to be as they made the silent decision to get the hell back to their room in the club and lose themselves in each other. Still keeping hands on each other as much as possible, they casually tried to walk out of the club with none of the bar staff or security guards realising what exactly was going on so they couldn't report it to Sakamoto therefore it getting back around to Jinoichi, which would undoubtedly cause problems for them both.

As they exited, Misaki turned around and saw Aisa sitting down and talking with Juran, but looking straight at her with a triumphant smile on her face. With a nod that conveyed everything that needed, and didn't need to be said, Aisa returned it and looked back to Juran, who hadn't noticed a thing.

In record time, resisting the urge to touch each other until Misaki unlocked the side door of the club, and they walked up stairs, not bothering to hide their rush, when Misaki noticed something she hadn't noticed until now. She could smell the scent of cigar smoke, wafting upstairs and spun around to see Jinoichi sitting at the bar, pouring himself a drink.

Kiba swiftly noticed as well and even though he didn't linger on it, he was momentarily impressed by her noticing before he did. He looked to her for a solution, both of them knowing that they couldn't exactly lose themselves in throes of passion with their boss sitting just downstairs. Misaki looked at him in a way that he could only interpret as 'Go inside the room, take your clothes off and wait. I'll be there in a minute.' and he smirked so sexily that she very nearly decided to not worry about Jinoichi and have him up against the wall.

She resisted and Kiba did as was told in the form of stare and went inside the bedroom and let Akamaru run into Aisa's room before he shut the door behind him, however he didn't remove his clothes because he wanted her to tear them off him after she was finished getting Jinoichi out of the building.

The large man, still wearing the same suit he was wearing that morning turned to look at her curiously as if wondering what she was doing. She came down the stairs and walked over to him, patting him on the shoulder twice before sitting on the stool next to him and fixing herself a drink.

"You look tired." was all she said to break the silence and she heard him sigh in response, and she knew that she'd gotten him in the position she'd hoped he'd be in.

"I am. I always am." he replied and sighed quietly again before sipping his drink.

"Go home. You need rest. There's not much point in you being up until all hours of the morning. We have a meeting tomorrow and I'm sure you have business to attend to before that. I will not have you doing everything half-assed because you are sleep deprived...Go." she patted his shoulder again and took the glass out of his hands as he got up and headed out the front door with a quiet 'Goodnight' as he shut and locked the door behind him.

With a groan made up of disbelief and laziness, she fixed two drinks and took them upstairs and skilfully opened the door with her foot and found Kiba sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his hands his shirt unbuttoned to reveal his toned form and she realised the urge to laugh at herself for getting caught up in this mess. She had lost nearly all of her earlier confidence but she felt like it was time to allow herself to have some fun.

All she ever did was sit alone at home, have the TV on in the background but not really watch it, and drink. Naruto occasionally came over bringing take-away food with him, wanting to make sure that she hadn't drunk herself to death since the last time she saw him. Usually she tried to take 2-3 day missions so she had an excuse to be out of the house, but not for too long.

Her life was boring and just dreadful. Deep down, she truly hated herself for allowing this to happen, but there were many things that contributed to the downfall of her once moral, righteous and motivated self. Now, all she was interested in was doing missions and being on her own. She stopped doing ANBU years ago because she just hated the filth that they dealt with, and there was too many times where she had nearly killed her own team mates because she just couldn't stand the stupidity that they displayed at times.

She had nearly been killed more times than she could ever count, and been injured four or five times the amount of near-death experiences, she had watched too many team mates and friends fall victim to other shinobi and she hated to admit it, but it got easier and easier every time. Eventually, she became what she was today. Her mind and heart was full of many secrets, and she still intended to keep it that way.

So, she finally decided that this was it. From now on she would ignore the rational part of her brain and decided to actually give the 'human' side of her a go at taking control every now and then, and she pushed the door shut with her rear, and it locked automatically with a 'click', a sound that broke the kind-of awkward silence and signified that neither of them were going to turn back now, even though now Hitori was stuck on the spot, struggling to move any further forward.

Kiba saw the slight hesitation in her eyes and he knew that she really wasn't very experienced with these things, so he decided to help her a little bit. He got up and sauntered over to her and nodded her with thanks as he took one of the drinks from her hands and he held his up against her in a silent toast, and they both gulped down the brown liquid in one mouthful.

He took both glasses and set them down on the dressing table that had various items scattered all over it, and went back to put an hand around her waist and the other to hold the back of her head as he leant his forehead up against her own and just took them moment before moving her chin so her head fell back and to one side a little and allowed him to lay slow, gentle and lustful kisses on her back, making her breath hitch in her throat.

She felt unsure, but let him have his way and certainly enjoyed the ministrations, the feel of his lips and tongue on her neck, his hands caressing her sides and rear. Hitori could feel the extent of his excitement and it was rather impressive to say the least.

The dark-haired woman couldn't help but let out a small moan when Kiba nibbled her ear and he responded by pulling her closer but he leaned back to look at her. The look in his eyes was so intense that she had to turn away and stare at the ground. He tried to bend down and catch her eye, but she averted her gaze from him again. After a moment Kiba took her face in his hands and make her look at him.

"I will make you feel everything you deserve to feel...and much more." he whispered with a tone she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she knew that if she didn't want to continue, she didn't have to.

Without thinking too much about it, she ignored it, knowing that she may as well while she had the chance and let him kiss her with everything he felt and she kissed him back with all that she could conjure. Giving into their desires, they let themselves loose upon each other, kissing, touching, groping and Kiba slowly pulled her towards the bed all the while not breaking contact with her.

Kiba allowed her to pull his shirt off his broad shoulders, kind of surprised that she would be so bold as to do so, but was pleased and smug when he smelt her arousal getting stronger and stronger the more he touched and kissed her. It drove him wild and he moved his hands off her only to grab the bottom of her shirt and wrench it over her head as quickly as he could without hurting her.

Even though she shied away away a little at being so revealed in front of him, he smiled into their kiss which gave her a bit more confidence, especially when he skilfully unclasped her bra and gently removed it, leaving her top half completely exposed to him.

He took a small breast in his large hand and Hitori gasped at the contact making Kiba continue with even more fevered grasps. Everything he did just felt amazing and she vaguely thought that if she had known that this was only the start of the pleasure he would undoubtedly make her feel, she would have done this ages ago.

With the courage that she was slowly gathering from Kiba's obvious attraction to her, she felt around for his belt and undid it, then removed it from his pants completely in one swift and strong yank. It was dropped on the floor and left there without another thought. She tore apart his pants and left them to fall down his legs and he grinned, being impressed with her confidence and burst of courage.

They were both going crazy as Kiba stepped out of his pants and reached down to get Hitori's off her as quickly as possible. The buttons and zip took only a moment to undo, but it was just too long for Kiba to wait, even though he restrained himself from just ripping them off her, since she still seemed a bit hesitant. Instead of letting them fall down themselves, he separated his mouth from hers and kissed his way down her body, slowly pulling her pants down her legs as he went.

Taking her lacy black underwear in his mouth he pushed gently on her stomach so she would fall back and sit on the bed. He lifted her legs up after she sat, slowly pulling her underwear down, staring straight into her lust-clouded eyes the whole time. He could tell it was driving her mad, and he thoroughly enjoyed every single second of it, and dropped the piece of cloth on the floor as soon as they were off her.

He knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he stood back up to his full height, enjoying how her eyes dropped to the stiffness still being concealed by his own underwear and widened almost imperceptibly. She looked back up at him as he stepped forward and he gently kissed her forehead and looked at her as if for confirmation that he could continue.

Hitori was still nervous, but didn't let any hesitation show, because she knew that even though the boring side of her brain was screaming at her to stop, and not to get in to deep, she kept enjoying the thought of Kiba being the one to 'get in deep', so to speak. A small smile came over her face, and he smiled back and began kissing her again, while he removed his boxers, and let them fall to the ground in a lump, forgotten.

She still sat up and he lifted her hips and let her fall onto her back before he leant over and kissed her as he got the hardest part over and done with and hated the sharp,pained intake of breath, and sat for a minute until she moved her hips, signalling for him to keep moving. He took it slow at first until she got used to it, and soon enough she was vocally displaying how much she was enjoying it all.

A few pleasured breaths and moans left his own mouth and it didn't take long for Hitori to be putting in the same amount of effort he was, by rocking against him, in time with his movements, making everything feel even better. After a short few minutes, Hitori felt the urge to take control, and she did.

Wrapping one of her legs around one of his, she used his weight to her advantage and pushed him over so she was on top, and she very much liked the deep rumble of a chuckle in his chest, and the lustful glaze over his eyes. It was her turn to drive him mad, and that she did. Kiba was barely able to move because Hitori was just letting loose on him, and he absolutely loved every single second of it.

They rolled over several times, each taking turns at being on top. Eventually Kiba decided to mix it up a bit and when he was on the bottom, he moved to a seated position and they embraced tightly as they rocked with each other.

Hitori was moaning with pleasure and the sounds were driving Kiba insane and making him thrust into her even harder and faster. After getting bored with their current position, Kiba used his strength to stand up on the bed and hold Hitori in place as she leaned back to allow him to get deeper. His hands ran up and down her front, squeezing her breasts and moving in time with her. He was surprised that he was lasting so long even though he was so incredibly turned on and so attracted to the woman he was with.

Eventually, his legs began to tire quickly being in that position, and he moved her into his personal favourite position, and not just for obvious reasons. Doggy style. From this point of view, he was able to see and feel all the different curves of her body, and he loved it.

He pulled her hair, and loved that she rammed back into him, meanwhile Hitori loved the different and amazing feel that this new position gave her. Kiba could tell she was nearing her climax and he knew that he was as well, so he rolled Hitori onto her back to make sure that he could see the ecstasy pass across her face as she reached completion. She looked so beautiful with her pale skin so flushed, and her black hair clinging to her sweat-coated skin, and her eyes wide open as she experienced something she never had before.

Pleasure ripped through her body, her eyes were tightly shut, her back arched up against Kiba's chest, and the way she was contracting so tightly around Kiba made him reach his own climax and let out broken groans as he held onto Hitori until it passed. He couldn't hold his own weight up any longer, and he gently kissed the woman laying beneath him before rolling off of her and resting his head on her bare chest.

They laid idly for a while, not saying anything merely because they didn't feel the need to say anything, just enjoying the silence and eventually sleep took them both...

* * *

The next morning Hitori awoke to feel Kiba's warm and naked body right up against her own, and he spooned her with an arm over her waist, holding her close to him. She couldn't resist the urge to smile. It seemed like something had almost changed in her overnight. She felt more...well, she just felt.

It wasn't a normal day where she would wake up and wonder what kind of life-threatening situation she would be put in next, wonder about if today would be the day she would finally be put out of her misery, and die a glorious death on the battlefield. Clearly, she hadn't actually had one of those days so far. Although, when she thought about that, she was reminded of the meeting that she was having today with Jinoichi and a few people who he hoped to be business partners with in the future.

Even though she knew and had seen first hand how messy these meetings could get if all went sour, she actually felt a little bothered by the fact that some stupid drug-trafficking Mafia member might actually be the one to kill her, instead of a worthy shinobi opponent, who would push to her limits until she had nothing left and then kill her as a shinobi, not as an undercover shinobi pretending to be a famous singing Mafia member who had been dealing drugs for most of her life.

She moved Kiba's arm off her, even though he groaned and frowned at the loss of her warmth next to him, she knew that she had to get up much earlier and prepare herself, and get something to eat so she wasn't starving all day. It was too early for Aisa to be up, and judging by the way she was talking to Juran tonight, she might not even be in the building, but at his apartment down the road.

After putting a dressing gown on to keep herself a little warmer and covered, Hitori quickly checked to find not Aisa laying on her bed, but Akamaru, and he wagged his tail before jumping down and following her downstairs so he could go outside. The dog was very much enjoying the idle days, but he was a ninken, and longed for exercise and the rush of adrenalin.

As she strolled around, she contemplated everything that had changed in the last 24 hours. She had done things she had never done before, like dance with a guy, be intimate with a male, and actually figure out for herself that she might be a little more than just attracted to him. It's not like she just woke up this morning and decided that she liked Kiba, but she was starting to realise that Aisa's 'Whatever-you-reckon' and 'You-keep-telling-yourself-that' looks after she had mentioned something about Kiba might have been right after all.

It was hard for her to accept the sudden emotional awareness she had, but she had a feeling it might not be so bad. She wasn't completely open with everything, but she just had started to not be so oblivious to her own feelings, thoughts and actions and what exactly they might mean when compared and contrasted to one another.

Hitori walked down to the kitchen and began quickly making herself up something out of whatever was laying around. She made a mix and match meal from the leftover food that wasn't sold last night and ate it while having a drink at the bar. The side door opened, but she had already sensed the presence of Jinoichi several minutes ago, and she greeted him before he went up to his office, and she went to get ready for the meeting today...

 


	8. Alive

**Chapter 8 - Alive**

It was Sunday morning, and usually Kiba and Hitori would normally be heading home to Konoha, but today Misaki had a meeting to attend with Jinoichi. It wasn't just a regular meeting, but it was a Mafia meeting and it was the kind of thing Hitori was waiting for. The Tora were finally letting her in and she couldn't be happier for it. She was really getting sick of this mission. It stopped her from taking any others just in case something went wrong on one and she got injured and also she had nothing to do all week.

The other odd thing about today was the fact that last night, Hitori had most uncharacteristically gone against logic and reason for once and just decided to do something because she felt like it. She indulged herself by sleeping with the Inuzuka currently snoring incredibly loud in the large bed behind her. He had a pleasant smile on his face, his hair was everywhere and even though he looked ridiculous, Hitori couldn't help but find something about him attractive in one way or another.

She wasn't used to these sorts of things, but she knew enough from living around other people to figure out that she wasn't suppose to ignore him, and avoid him unless she regretted it, which she did not. It was almost as if he had unlocked the feelings that she had buried and shut away long ago, and even though she wasn't 'normal' as such, she was feeling a lot less numb than usual, which was a surprise in itself.

A black kimono with a silver dragon image was her outfit of choice for the day, and she heard Kiba stirring just as she was tying her obi. Hitori turned to see the man stretch and yawn, looking more like a dog than ever. Speaking of which, at that precise moment, Akamaru came bounding back inside, clearly having finished his business outside and had a big drink from his water bowl before he leapt up on the bed, squishing Kiba and making Hitori laugh at the ninken's antics.

Akamaru didn't seem to realise his mistake but he jumped down and began playing around with Hitori, who was careful to watch his claws with her kimono. It cost too much and she did not want it to be torn. After a moment, she sensed Jinoichi coming out of his office, signalling that he would be coming over here and fetching her. Not leaving without getting a scratch behind the ears, Akamaru went and laid down in front of the heater, and within a second she adjusted and touched up, just in time for him to knock on the closed door and for her to be only a few steps away.

Before opening said door, she looked to Kiba who watched her with an unreadable look and a slightly furrowed brow, and spoke quietly, "I've got a meeting. I shouldn't be more than an hour or two." she smiled at him, as if to reassure him that she would be fine, and even though she could see the defiance in his eyes, he kept it to himself and just nodded drowsily in response.

Misaki opened the door and smirked at Jinoichi and with a quick glance to the man who was nearly asleep already, she shut the door behind her and headed out the side door with the Mafia leader, and followed him to the other side of town to the Tora warehouse. Most of the men were already there, but a few filed in a few minutes after they did and they went over the plan for this deal to go smoothly a few times.

Basically, the other group were to come here with three men only, and their leader, and said leader would negotiate with Jinoichi about prices for trades. For example, Jinoichi would give them the product to sell, and transport it for them, and then they would sell it and receive a certain amount of the profit that was made.

Then there was the option where things went to complete shit. Sometimes these deals were all a ruse and were only for the purpose of assassinating the leading member of the other family and to take out some of the higher ranking members. Things like this were difficult and always managed to get the heart racing, even for Misaki who had been in situations were death was nearly certain, and trying to complete the mission was practically suicide.

They waited for half an hour until their was a knock on the large metal door, at the exact planned time. Misaki half-sat, half-stood casually on an empty wooden crate with her arms crossed and just watched quietly as the men walked in, all dressed in suits and Jinoichi greeted them with respect but she could see how much caution he moved with.

Silver eyes watched like a hawk and inspected every last millimetre of the men that walked through the large metal doors, and she did not let anything escape her, especially the way they moved, such as their dominant side, if they had any weak spots, just preparing herself for battle subconsciously like she always would with something like this.

There was a small table with two chairs in the middle of the warehouse and the two leaders sat down at the table, their followers watching as if just waiting for the command to shed blood. Misaki rolled her eyes at their incompetence. If she felt like it, these men would all be dead within one minute. She was definitely armed enough to take them all out just with either kunai or shuriken, with one strapped to each arm, several on her belt, and a bunch of shuriken in a hidden pocket on the inside of her kimono, which was why she didn't mind wearing them.

Mostly, the two men talked quietly, but after a few minutes of discussion that seemed to be getting more and more heated with the passing seconds, eventually all the men in the room could hear what they were saying. Misaki could of course hear the whole time with her sharpened hearing and heard the difficult and stubborn attempt at negotiating a reasonable price for the both of them.

Instead of just making it obvious, she just sat on the same wooden crate with her arms crossed, staring blankly at the ground with her silver eyes hidden behind closed eyes as she concentrated on the conversation happening not 10 metres from her. Jinoichi was bargaining for a maximum of 10% while the other family leader was trying to get 20% out of him and neither seemed to be ready to budge.

After 10 minutes of constant back and forth between the two of them, a vein finally burst in Misaki's head and she piped up after trying so incredibly hard to keep her mouth shut for the last half hour, especially no progress had been made for at least the last 25 minutes of that half hour. Her voice was quiet, but it demanded both attention and respect and it portrayed that her patience for this had very much run out.

"Jinoichi...I grow tired of this." she kept her eyes shut and stayed still until she heard his intake of breath as if he was going to challenge her. Said eyes snapped open and bored into his own. "15%. Done." she made her words unavoidable and the other man looked to her as if he wondered why she was speaking, almost as if he was contemplating her very existence and she glared at him with such evil shining in her silver orbs that he gulped and turned back to Jinoichi and suddenly dropped to 15%.

The leader of the Tora sighed, and looked to Misaki with reluctance, and she stared back blankly, but her body language dared him to refuse the agreement of 15%. He agreed and both men stood up and shook hands, sealing the deal. Misaki sighed with relief and made no effort to hide it, where as the other men, or lackeys at least did it silently.

A contract was quickly written up, signed and everyone left, Jinoichi and Misaki heading back in the direction of the club, two of Jinoichi's men trailing behind at a distance, keeping a close eye, as per usual. Instead of coming back inside the club, Jinoichi said he would just be getting home, and that he would see her next week. She bid him goodbye and exhaled heavily with boredom as he walked away.

She opened the side door of the club to find Aisa sitting at a table, eating some concoction of leftovers, looking like she definitely had a good time last night. Misaki poured them a drink each and sat down with her, allowing her guard to drop slightly and her composure to break. The blonde watched her friend stare into space for a few minutes, sipping her drink occasionally before she broke the silence.

"So, how was it?" she blurted out with no hint of discretion whatsoever, a smug grin on her face.

"I beg your pardon." Misaki spoke with a strained and oddly high-pitched voice into her glass as she drank the liquid it contained and pretended not to know what Aisa was talking about, barely glancing at her.

"You and Kiba. I've been waiting for it to happen for ages now. Since I've gotten to know you, I've been able to see right through you, my dearest Misaki-chan." Aisa said in a sing-song voice and stared triumphantly at her blank faced friend.

"Speak of the devil..." Misaki muttered under her breath as she saw Kiba emerge from the bedroom, just wearing a pair of long, black pants that sat low on his hips and showed his 'V' line, and she couldn't help but appreciate the view she had of the shirtless man stretching his arms, his muscles rippling as he moved, and his eyes caught her own, but she didn't look away, just stared at him with a look Kiba couldn't quite describe.

Aisa realised that Misaki was staring at something, so she turned her head to follow the woman's gaze, to see Kiba leaning against the rail, smirking deviously before walking down the stairs, yawning along the way with Akamaru at his heels. He walked past the table, intending on going and fixing himself something to eat so that he would have enough energy to get both him and Akamaru through the trip home, and then they would just get take-away for dinner and have a quiet night in.

The Inuzuka came back out with a piping hot mound of food on top of his plate, all ready to be eaten. He inhaled through his nose, his sharp sense of smell picking up on everything on the plate, but also the smell of the liquor from the two glasses on the table, the two women drinking from said glasses, and the musky smell of Sozoku itself.

It was quiet while Aisa and Kiba ate, Misaki just sitting back in her chair silently, with her eyes shut and sipping from her drink every few minutes. Kiba finished his mountain of food before Aisa finished her small plate, and Akamaru was given a few bits of left over meat from Kiba and Aisa's plates even though this morning, Misaki had left him half of her food.

They all both went upstairs and talked randomly as Misaki and Kiba packed their things and got ready to head back home. Misaki changed back into her usual casual clothes, today being a black top that zipped up at the front, mesh leggings and a loose pair of black pants that came to just below her knees and she added in her leather boots with the metal plates on the front to finish the equation.

Aisa saw them out of the city and they waited until they reached the cover of the trees before they picked up the pace subconsciously. Nothing was said between them, as Hitori didn't really know what to think or say to him, since she wasn't use to these things, and Kiba didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing and get his ass beaten by the vengeful woman while Akamaru enjoyed the wind on his face.

After stopping for dango, as per usual, they continued on their way but Kiba noticed that Hitori was moving a little more hesitantly than before. At first he didn't think much of it, assuming that it might just be that she wouldn't know what to do or say when they actually got home, but when a kunai came sailing at her chest, he thought otherwise.

Before either of them could think about it, Hitori had drawn a kunai and knocked the one that was coming straight at her out of the way and she managed to dodge or knock away the ten or so that came after. Kiba seemed like he soiled himself with shock as the loud sound of clashing metal was heard and then all was silent.

"Kiba, stay here. Do not move unless you absolutely have to." she hissed to him and he made a stunned sound of agreement and Akamaru stopped as well, following his master and picking up on the uncertainty of the situation.

He watched with disbelief as she disappeared into thin air right before his eyes, and he felt a strong chakra radiate off her for a moment before becoming undetectable again. He could still faintly smell her, but all he could do was stand there and watch as one, two, three, four and five bodies in total fell from the trees and a few seconds later, he nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw Hitori appear again a few feet in front of him and she walked towards him with cold, dull eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly looking around at what were her opponents a minute ago. Akamaru rubbed his nose against her hand, making sure she was alright and she responded by patting him in reassurance.

"...what the fuck is going on?" he yelled after staring at her for at least 10 seconds, contrasting completely to her quiet words and threw his arms up in the air.

"I'll explain, but first, I'm going to dispose of these guys." she piled them on top of one another and looked for any clues about who they might be before bowing her head and using a small amount of fire-natured chakra to burn the evidence. She noticed a small cut on her arm and felt a tingle coming from it, but didn't think much of it and watched the fire blaze.

After that, she gestured to Kiba to keep moving and she knew she didn't have to hold back any more, so she leapt up into the trees and began to travel at the pace she normally would on this trip, which was about break-neck speed for Kiba, but he was so surprised and confused that he didn't really notice the speed at which they were travelling.

"So, explain. Please." he asked with sarcastic politeness.

"Firstly, those shinobi must have been after me for some reason. I didn't recognise the mark on their hitai-ite but that first kunai was aimed straight at my heart. I don't really have much choice but to tell you what's going on now, but I have been trying to tell you for a while. But I'm sure you can guess the most important part." Hitori began to explain and looked at Kiba to see if he knew what she was referring to.

"You certainly aren't a civilian. You're a fucking shinobi. And a pretty decent one at that." he answered with awe in his tone and wide eyes, all this now being confirmed and he was now sure that he didn't just momentarily fall asleep.

"Yes. The real reason why I'm in Sozoku is that I'm undercover and I'm trying to bust Jinoichi's drug trafficking. He thinks I'm an old school drug dealer from over west named Misaki, but the actual Misaki was killed in a raid a few months ago. Supposedly, she was a beautiful, yet scary woman who used to sing a lot. Tsunade decided to give me the mission because she thought I fit the profile perfectly."

"Damn right." he muttered so quietly and incoherently that Hitori pretended not to hear it and just continued talking.

"So anyway. For the last three months, I've been pretending to work for Jinoichi's Mafia group, the Tora and help out with all the illegal shit, but it's only recently that he's actually been trusting me and letting me in to where I need to be to crack this case. I was wounded before because I was trying to find what warehouse in Sozoku belonged to them, and I found it, but they had some massive security systems that even I didn't know existed...And that's why I've been so secretive. There you go." she shrugged and continued to look ahead of her while Kiba was trying to take all this in.

He was just so out of sorts right now. To see her go from a 'defenceless civilian' to some almighty, easily jonin class shinobi, who could run faster than he could think as well as disappear into thin air and reappear just as easily, was just throwing him through a loop. Only an hour earlier, she was still that beautiful woman he had slept with who sung at a club owned by the Mafia in a crime-filled city two hours away, and now she was a deadly, cold (Well, colder than before), shinobi who could kill five men whilst being invisible, and without breaking a sweat.

As he watched her idly, with his teeth biting down on his bottom lip, his dark eyes soft, he wondered how such an enchanting woman, could become someone so heartless. There was undercover jobs, and there was _this_. He couldn't help but wonder what side of her was the real her since it would be almost natural to get used to socialising and being friendly, and it's normal for people to be that way, even a shinobi could pull it off with ease. Maybe the carefree, fun side that he had seen more recently was the person she truly was underneath it all, or maybe she was just a really good actor.

Somehow, he doubted both possibilities. She pulled off the ice queen act so well, but yet she did seem comfortable while being down here, as if she really did become another person, as if she locked away her usual self and let the playful side come out. It could be that she really did have a split personality, or that she just didn't want anyone to know who she really was.

In that moment as she stared into space in silence, he made a vow to himself. This woman, this shinobi, this whoever she really was, had driven him nuts, and he'd only known her for a bit over two weeks. He promised himself that he would find out who she became when she was alone, when she was open and vulnerable.

It would probably only take another 30 minutes in total for the rest of the trip since they were travelling at full-pace, and Kiba much preferred it this way. Shinobi travelling was by far more enjoyable than going somewhere at a civilian's pace. As they ran side by side, she struggled with her thoughts on trying to figure out what to say to him. It was hard because she didn't want him to think that she was lying to her, but she was sure that he would understand, since it was a mission.

"Uh...I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I only got permission off Tsunade before we left this week and I couldn't figure out how to tell you." she spoke quietly, since she was worried about him being angry and he certainly was.

"Why didn't you tell me straight away then? I would have liked to know that I didn't really need to protect you since you were a good enough shinobi to protect yourself. You could have told me as soon as I met you that you were a shinobi and you were doing a mission! I would have been happy with at least knowing that you were a shinobi on an undercover mission! You wouldn't have even had to tell me what the mission was!" his voice was raised and he saw her slow down to a stop and he did the same, and waited for her response, looking in another direction.

"Kiba..." he heard her whisper and he looked at her to see her swaying and her eyes fluttering. She could barely stand and his anger was immediately replaced by fear. He didn't see her get injured in the fight with the shinobi earlier, so he had no idea what was wrong. It looked like she was struggling to breath for a moment, and then she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

He caught her as she nearly fell from the tree branch, and he looked in her pained eyes and his own eyes glanced over her body to try and figure out what had happened to her. The brunette noticed Akamaru nudging at a small scratch on her arm and he concentrated on the smell of her blood to figure out what was wrong, and it clicked with him at the same time she said it out aloud.

"I've been poisoned. I've managed to break down most of it, but you need to get me to Konoha. I need Sakura." she turned her head and coughed up blood a few times, which landed mostly on the tree branch or on Kiba, but some went on her shirt and dribbled down her chin.

Without another thought, or second to even think of something, he picked her up and ran as hard as he could. Akamaru struggled to keep up, but didn't complain since the clever dog knew something wasn't right with his female friend, and Kiba was insanely relieved to see Konoha come into sight. He told Akamaru that he would take Hitori straight to the hospital and if Sakura wasn't there, for him to go and find her.

Kotetsu and Izumo watched in confusion as they saw the large black and the four-legged white blur pass through the gates and towards the hospital. Izumo shrugged and Kotetsu just yawned and went back to whatever he was doing earlier, while Kiba stormed into the hospital lobby, covered in Hitori's blood with the woman in his arms, barely holding onto her consciousness.

"Where is Sakura?" he asked the nearest medic loudly, startling her before she told him that it was her day off and that she was probably at home. "Akamaru, go and find Sakura, quickly." he ordered his companion urgently.

The ninken ran off through the doors and through the streets of Konoha, while Hitori was admitted and Kiba laid her down on a bed, and they got to work on healing her straight away. Sakura was just walking out of the flower shop after visiting Ino when Akamaru ran up to her and barked loudly, getting her attention immediately. She said hello to him and gave him a pat, and he gently bit down on her skirt, tugging her in the direction of the hospital.

She knew that the ninken wasn't just playing, and they ran to the hospital and Akamaru led her straight to Hitori's bedside. The pale-skinned girl was almost green with illness, and the area where her arm was scratched was nearly black from the dead blood under her skin and bleeding profusely. There was also blood coming from the girl's nose, mouth, even her eyes and ears so Sakura set straight to the task of sending her chakra into Hitori's body, to asses the damage and try to figure out how the poison worked.

It seemed that it was a poison that stopped the blood from clotting, therefore causing severe haemorrhaging, inside and out. Quite a brutal way to die, bleeding from the inside out. Sakura told the orderlies to get her prepared for a blood transfusion and to get her three large bowls of saline solution. Within a few minutes they returned with all the necessary items, while Sakura had been trying to slow down and stop the poison's damage to Hitori's body.

She coughed up blood and it stained the bedsheets and pillow red, but she laid still and struggled to contain herself as Sakura set to work on extracting the fast-acting poison. Hitori had broken most of it down with a high output and concentration of bloods cells and boosting her bodies immune system, but unfortunately it wasn't done quick enough and the remnants of the poison were enough to do the intended damage.

Sakura was impressed with the good job that Hitori had done, and she worked hard to save the girl, hoping that all her struggles to survive wouldn't be in vein. Also, she took notice of a very frantic Kiba who sat on the floor up against the wall in the corner of the room, his head in his hands and his eyes wide with shock and worry. It took about an hour and twenty minutes, but the pink-haired medic managed to extract the rest of the poison from Hitori's bloodstream, just as she had done for Kankuro all those years ago.

Most of the pain was gone from Hitori's face, but she was still haemorrhaging and Sakura's next task was to help her clot so she wouldn't bleed out. She healed the small cut on her arm, now a dark purple from all the dead blood cells in her skin. Another hour past, and she eventually got Hitori's platelet count through the roof so she would stop bleeding and then she was given the transfusion.

Roughly two and a bit hours after Kiba had brought the woman through the front doors of the hospital, she was finally out of the critical stage and stabilised. All of her vital signs returned to normal and it seemed that she would be fine with a few days rest to regenerate all of the blood and all of the nutrients she had lost and to get her immune system back in check. Sakura prescribed her some medication that would speed up the recovery, and assigned one of the medics to check on her every half an hour.

Most of the medics left the room, returning to their other duties now that they were not needed and Sakura walked over to Kiba, who was still sitting in the corner with Akamaru's head resting on his knee. She received a lick to the cheek from the ninken before his nose nudged Kiba's leg to get his attention and the dog leapt up on the bed to lay at Hitori's feet. Kiba looked up, worry written all over his face. Sakura smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be fine. Most of the work was done by her before she lost consciousness. I've stopped her from haemorrhaging, and she's had a blood transfusion so she'll be okay. It will just take her a few days to be back to normal. Alright?" Sakura spoke softly to him, knowing that he was extremely concerned for Hitori's well-being.

He nodded, a look of relief passing over his face and he knew that if Sakura said that she would be okay, then she would be okay. Kiba trusted his childhood friend and comrade and he knew that Sakura would look after Hitori. Even beside all that, he still didn't want to leave Hitori's side.

Being the ever-perceptive one, Sakura grabbed him a nice comfortable chair to sit in, and he sat there for ages, just lost in his own thoughts until the orderly came to check on Hitori every half hour or so. Soon enough, it was dark and he still had no interest in going home, no matter how much Sakura told him to go and get some rest, saying that she would contact him immediately if anything changed.

Eventually, Sakura basically pushed him out the front doors, telling him not to worry and that she would get Akamaru to come and get him when she woke up. It put his mind at ease knowing that at least Akamaru was there, but he still didn't want to leave. He walked home, feeling absolutely worthless and sorry for himself.

What kind of a shinobi was he? What kind of an Inuzuka was he? He didn't sense, nor did he or Akamaru smell the enemy, but yet Hitori knew they were there. It was very odd for him to not be ready for action all the time, since being in a war tended to make a normal shinobi who already slept with one eye open, sleep with both eyes open, as well as having chakra sensors and barriers up around them all the time.

He should have been able to protect Hitori, let alone himself. He was fortunate that he wasn't the target, since he doubted he would have been able to avoid the poisoned kunai, and he would have received the full blast of the lethal poison and considering how much trouble even Sakura had just to heal a tiny poisoned scratch, even with Hitori's help, he felt lucky that he didn't get hit but upset that it had to be Hitori.

A heavy and long sigh escaped him as he unlocked his front door. Tomorrow, he would tell her that he cared about her and that he was so sorry for not being able to protect her. Even though he was supposed to protect 'Misaki', technically Hitori was Misaki, so by protecting one, he protected the other. He would tell her that maybe, just maybe he had some feelings for her and see if she felt the same.

Maybe she would finally decide to open her heart to him, or maybe she would shut him out for good for thinking such stupid things. He had no idea how she would react to his words, but something told him that everything would work out. Hopefully that wouldn't just be wishful thinking...


	9. Hurt

**Chapter 9 - Hurt**

It was the next morning, and Hitori woke to the sound of an orderly coming into her hospital room and checking her over. The young man asked her a few things and she answered as best she could even though she still felt like she was dying. Also, she had noticed that this poison must be an agent to stop the flow of chakra by blocking the pathways through the body, which meant she wasn't actually able to heal herself and she told the orderly, which he wrote down on her chart.

The orderly told her that she had a visitor as well, if she was up to it and she nodded in response, guessing it was probably Kiba. He let her know before he left that Shizune was the chief-medic on duty today, so she would come in a bit later and see to her and left the room, sending in the visitor that Hitori recognised as Hana, Kiba's older sister.

Akamaru got down from the end of Hitori's bed to greet the older Inuzuka sibling and barked happily that she was here, before licking her hand and getting some attention before saying good morning to Hitori via more hand-licking.

"Hi there." Hana greeted quietly, smiling very politely. "I'm glad to see you are okay. Kiba came and stayed at my house last night and he wouldn't shut up about you. I'm surprised he didn't try and break into the hospital to see you." she laughed lightly and didn't actually seem to be exaggerating.

"Sounds like him." she smirked faintly, not feeling up to doing anything more than that.

"I came to pick up Akamaru for starters, and also to tell you some things you might not know about Kiba. He is really starting to care about you, and I'm glad he is with someone who can tell him what's what, because he tended to get away with a lot of stuff with his two previous girlfriends." Hana was about to continue but Hitori had to stop her there and tell her the reality of the situation.

"Hana, I'm sorry, but I'm not _with_ Kiba. I don't really know if I have any strong feelings for him, let alone want to be in a relationship with him. We haven't actually gotten to a stage where I feel it would be a good idea to discuss such things, so I haven't really given it any thought." the younger woman corrected as kindly as she could, not wanting to be rude.

"Ah, I see. That's fair enough. Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do about it. You have your own life, your own wants and needs. But I would like to make sure that you know how deeply Kiba has come to care for you. If you are going to let him down, do it carefully. He's been worried about you and I think he's even more concerned now he knows that you're a shinobi." the look in Hana's dark eyes softened for a reason Hitori couldn't quite figure out, but she assumed it was just from her talking about her brother.

"If you do decide to try and pursue something with him, you won't find anyone more loyal. I don't really like how people compare Inuzuka's with dogs, but there are similarities, I will admit. We are loyal partners, and we care deeply for the people closest to us. Every last one of us would defend what we want to the death and I don't think Kiba would give you up very easily. He is very stubborn, something we both get from our mother, and I hope that you might care the same way for him, because you seem to make him happy."

Hitori was almost upset at hearing these words, knowing that Kiba probably blabbed similar words to his sister last night, and she figured that Hana was basically telling her everything that Kiba had said to her, hoping that she might be able to see her brother happy.

"We are never the same without partners, and we are always happier when we find someone who cares about us the same way we care for them. Even Mum would be glad to have another strong woman like you around. Being in a clan full of gruff men can get pretty old. She was glad when she had a daughter." Hana chuckled and smiled happily with such a lovely look in her eye, it made Hitori wonder how it felt to have a family, since she had never known her own.

"Sorry, I'm rambling, and I have to leave for a mission in a few hours, so I'll leave you be. But just remember what I said. Don't feel pressured to be with him from what I said, but I've noticed how lonely he is lately, and I just got a bit excited when he said that there was a girl he liked." Hitori didn't respond to her, having absolutely no clue what to say the woman, but simply gave her a small smile.

"I really hope you feel better soon, Hitori." Hana said and grinned at Hitori before leaving, shutting the door behind her, leaving Hitori lost in her thoughts...

* * *

A few hours later, Hitori awoke to Shizune coming in to see her. The older woman sighed at the mess of a shinobi she had to clean up, but she was glad Hitori was okay. She was sure that she might not have made it through the night if Kiba hadn't carried her to village with such haste.

"Hey Shizune. Sorry for the hassle." Hitori said, noticing the deep sigh, and smiled appreciatively as Shizune grabbed her chart and looked everything over.

"It's alright. Seems like you did the hardest part and Sakura followed up really well." Shizune's hands glowed green with chakra as she examined the her patient and friend. "I think you are right. The poison has blocked your chakra pathways, making it impossible for you to use it to heal yourself. So what I'll do is schedule you for a chakra bleed and see if that can kick-start your systems enough to unblock the pathways themselves, or we'll need to get like four of us to work and unblock them ourselves."

Hitori nodded, being familiar with everything she was saying. Shizune told her that she would get her ready for a chakra bleed tomorrow and get a night-shift medic to give her a quick healing session so she would be ready for the operation tomorrow afternoon. Basically it was just a slang term for saying that they would use a special system to drain all the patients chakra into a container and then try to force it back into them, hopefully clearing the pathways, meaning that Hitori could basically treat herself once she was right to use her chakra again.

It could be a dangerous thing to do, since chakra was just as important as blood in a shinobi's body, and when done, the medic had to be careful not to drain too much, otherwise the pathways could shut down, and then in turn that would cause the nervous system to slowly stop working. Also, it was possible to damage the patient's body if they were weak from poison or severe injury, which was why it was being done tomorrow, after a healing session was done to lessen or prevent any damage from the procedure.

"By the way, I figured you would get pretty bored, so I tried to find a good book, but all I could find was one of our medical books, so I brought it for you to read." Shizune said, making Hitori chuckle, but begin to cough from the pain.

After a few more minutes of examination and writing down notes, Shizune finished up and said goodbye, adding that she would make sure she was well prepared for tomorrow and telling her to rest up. Hitori thanked her and watched her walk out with her assistant who bowed and shut the door behind them.

She sighed, not feeling like she could go back to sleep now, and unfortunately it forced her to recall everything Hana had said to her this morning. The whole situation was all sorts of fucked up, and she remembered that this was why she didn't do things like sleep with a fellow shinobi, let alone sleep with anyone, since it usually only caused hassle.

The thought of Kiba really caring for her made her a tiny bit happy, somewhere deep in her heart, but her mind was in control today, and she realised how stupid she was for letting herself do what she did with Kiba, since she was going to give him false hope.

Kiba should have known that she wasn't looking for a big fancy relationship, were they would go out on dates, have dinner, see movies and stay over at each others houses and what not. That just wasn't her. Her job was to put her life on the line, and her actually life itself took a back seat to her job.

There was no way she would be capable of being in a relationship. Her emotions were barely there any more, let alone enough to try and make a long-term, committed relationship work. Her body felt like it was barely functioning and it just made her more frustrated since it was just adding her list of problems that seemed to be getting longer every second she was conscious.

A few hours later, she received her healing session from the night-medic who she made small talk with, having worked with her a few times before until she was finished. Hitori felt better afterwards, her limbs feeling less stiff, and she could move a bit more, with less pain.

Since the medic's all knew her, they knew that she could look after herself, so they used the time they could be treating her with to look after patients that didn't know the first things about medical chakra, and the few civilians who couldn't use chakra at all.

The night-medic left some pain medication, as well as a few other things, such as tablets that would help her sleep, capsules that would boost her immune system and even medication that would help her use the toilet. Even though she had only been awake for about an hour and a half, she already felt exhausted from all this thinking, and decided it would be a good idea to go back to sleep.

She sat up just enough to have a drink of water, take the tablet and wish for sleep to come swiftly. It didn't come for an hour, and throughout that hour of near insanity, she got more and more frustrated at Kiba for being such a naïve child and getting his hopes up over something he should know better about.

With a charming scowl on her face, she eventually drifted off to sleep...

* * *

The next day, Hitori woke up to Shizune letting her know she was going to be taken down to the operating room for the chakra bleed procedure, and she mentally prepared herself for it. She had never needed to administer a procedure like this, let alone be the patient in the situation, and all medic's were a bit scared to go under the knife because they knew what could go wrong.

But, Hitori trusted Shizune with her life, and knew that she would be alright. Apparently Sakura was on today as well, and would join them to help out if needed. She watched the roof pass by as she was wheeled through the hospital and into Shizune's favourite operating room.

Everything was set out just how she liked it, and Sakura was already in there, turning on equipment and making way for the operation. She greeted Hitori with a grin, who returned it as much as she could without wincing in pain. While Shizune continued setting up, Sakura talked to Hitori for a few minutes, telling her that Kiba was in for a while today, just sitting in her room, reading from the large book Shizune had brought her, trying to distract himself from worry.

Hitori didn't know whether that should piss her off, or made her heart do a little happy flip in her chest, but she ignored it as everything was ready to go. She had to stay awake for this, so that Sakura could keep an eye on her conciousness, making sure that Shizune stopped draining her chakra before she passed out.

All the little things were attached to monitor everything her body would do while this was happening, and after a few minutes, Shizune gave the all clear for them to begin. Hitori had a lot of chakra, and they had even got a second machine ready to go if need be, and Hitori heard the beep of it being switched on as she felt the machine suck her chakra out of her.

It was a very weird feeling, and she already felt faint and her head had already been spinning at the lack of stable chakra flowing through her body for the past few days, but it just felt a million times worse, and the feeling grew as the machine continued to do it's job.

When it was full, they quickly switched over to the other and it only took another few minutes for Hitori to nearly be out cold before Sakura said to stop. They switched back to other machine, since it had more chakra in it, and set it for reverse and Sakura grabbed a hold of Hitori's hand, and gave her a small towel to bite down on knowing that this would be the worst part.

With a deep breath, she felt her own chakra surge painfully through her body, feeling like she was going to burst, but the sensation subsided almost completely when she felt the blockages through her chakra pathways begin to clear one at a time. It took about 10 minutes of searing pain, but eventually she was back to normal, and they replaced the rest of her chakra, and she immediately felt so much better.

Shizune and Sakura both wrote down notes, and filled out Hitori's chart, and detached everything from her before slowly wheeling her back upstairs, the operation a full success with what seemed like no lasting damage.

One of the medic's was sent to get her a good hot meal, now that she could eat again since the operation had been done, and she was left to eat by herself, and the young woman was ecstatic to be able to eat again. She barely even tasted the food, since she was just so glad to eat again.

Soon enough, since her stomach was full, she felt drowsy and fell asleep before she had time to realise how tired she was...

Hitori was lucky enough to sleep through until about midday the next day, when someone knocked on her door and she woke up as the door slid open to reveal a bright blonde mop of spiky hair, and bright ocean blue eyes belonging to the Kyuubi Jinchuriki.

She smiled and noticed to bowl of take-away ramen, and the scent of the food filled her nostrils and made her smile widen. He chuckled at the look on her face and pulled up a seat next to her bed after helping her to a seated position so she could eat with him.

"So how are you feeling?" he asked, even though it was fairly obvious she wasn't feeling the best.

"Better now my chakra is back to normal. But I still feel like shit. And it's not just the poison that I'm feeling the effects of." Hitori said cryptically, wondering if Naruto would question her on it, or just leave it be, letting her keep it to herself unless she wanted to talk to him about it.

"You wanna' talk about it?" he asked through a mouthful of ramen, making her snort with laughter, and nearly choke on her own.

"Basically, this mission is frustrating me to the point of insanity. I'm only just now getting the point that I need to be, and I just want to get it done. It's driving me nuts. Also, Kiba is becoming a severe problem." she ate some ramen, while Naruto took in what she said, and gave her a look to continue.

"He likes me..." she explained simply, and Naruto raised an eyebrow, still stuffing his face so she kept going. "He _likes_ me, Naruto. Do you understand what that means?"

The blonde man shook his head and shrugged, slurping up noodles at an almost alarming rate. She could barely talk to him like this because he was making it hard not to laugh, and unfortunately, laughing really hurt her body at the moment, so she breathed deep to ignore it and continued.

"It means that he might want to be with me. Hana visited me yesterday and basically told me things that probably came straight from his mouth, but she said them in a more eloquent manner. She thought we were dating. And we aren't, before you ask." she ate some more ramen while it was Naruto's turn to talk, since he had already woofed down his large bowl.

"Why is that such a bad thing? Maybe it would be good for you to open up a bit more. You should know by now that shinobi need to try and have a good personal life while they can. Having someone to come home to, who loves you no matter what you did that day is a good feeling." the young man smiled that same smile that was always contagious, the one he had on his face whenever he looked at Hinata.

"You might be right. But I don't think I can do that. I don't want to get hurt. More importantly, I don't want to be distracted while I'm working because I had an argument with him or something stupid like that. I can't have my duty affected by such trivial things." she answered with slight anger in her voice, not at Naruto, but just at the situation as a whole.

"Seriously? I think you are professional enough to keep your personal life separate from your job as a shinobi. How many years have you been turning down things like this all because you put your work first? Honestly, I'm going to be the next Hokage and I'm not even that serious about my job. It's your family, friends and the things you care about that matter the most. Not what you are ordered to do." he said these profound things so casually, that she had no idea how he was ever so immature.

"Look, it's up to you. Only you know whether you have feelings for him or not. But don't deny yourself something that might make you happy. Okay?" he added as he stood up and gently hugged her, saying that he needed to get back to work, and he would come over to her place when she was discharged from the hospital.

It seemed that she had been given a lot to think about the in last few days, probably more than her brain could handle, and she felt herself getting stressed out, but the good thing about being in the hospital was, if she wanted to be left alone, the staff on duty wouldn't let anywhere get even near the door to her room without permission from the on duty chief-medic.

Her mind mused over all these things late into the evening, and the smell of the lavender plants on the hospital grounds eventually lulled her to sleep.

* * *

In the early hours of the morning when it was still dark and dew hadn't even begun to form on the plants, Hitori was abruptly woken by the yelling of hospital staff and it seemed there was a large commotion happening just down the hall. She rubbed her eyes, and felt a chakra signature that was fading very quickly. She got up out of bed, feeling much more capable of walking around without agonising pain and opened her door to see what was going on.

A familiar face was being pushed on a gurney towards the emergency unit and when they went past her room, she saw it was Hana. She was covered in blood and her face was contorted with extreme pain. No high level medic was in the hospital at these times, but were on call, and even though a runner would have been sent to get someone, it could be a few minutes before they arrived and Hitori didn't know how long Hana would last.

She ignored the cold breeze floating under her flimsy hospital gown, and followed them to the operating room, where she immediately took charge, ignoring all the protests from the staff members that she needed to be resting up.

Straight away she got to work, channelling her healing chakra to her hands and sending into Hana's body. She noticed straight away that this was poison. The same one she had been infected with. With that knowledge, she got two medics to concentrate on cleaning her wounds while Hitori stopped the bleeding. It was easy for her to slip into the leading role, even though she already felt exhausted enough to pass out, she pushed on, hoping that the other medic would get here soon.

It didn't take long for the bleeding to be stopped, and Hitori knew that she would have to try and prevent Hana's chakra pathways from blocking, otherwise she would have to have the same procedure Hitori had only a few hours earlier. She gave orders here and there, sending one medic to get fluids, and morphine and another to get her cannula prepared for when the other medic returned.

The other two finished cleaning the wound, and one went and grabbed dressings for the wounds, while Hitori got the other to help healing her and to concentrate on closing the wounds, as the grey-eyed woman pushed her chakra through to try and stop the blockages from forming fully. She was slowly winning the fight, but it was taking everything she had.

Only about 7-8 minutes after Hana was brought in, the other medic arrived, which was Sakura and she scolded Hitori for being up, even though she knew the older girl was just helping. Hitori stayed concious just long enough to tell Sakura what she had done so far, and that it was the same poison that had nearly destroyed her.

Sakura commended her on her good work, and sent an orderly male to carry her back to her room, since she couldn't even stand up by now, and by the time she was laid down on her bed, she was already out cold...

* * *

The next day, she woken up and given breakfast, which was much better than the breakfast of a slice of toast that she would have had if she was home. That was one of the best things about the hospital, you got fed well.

About an hour later, she still wasn't feeling worn out and she laid down and concentrated on healing herself, now that she had her own chakra back. She kept going for the next half hour until someone knocked on her room's door. She said for them to come in, while she kept healing herself and she saw scruffy brown hair, that couldn't belong to anyone else but Kiba.

Instantly, anger surged up through her, and she resisted acting on the thought of taking out her cannula and throwing it at his jugular vein. She kept healing herself, as if she was hoping that if she kept going, maybe he might just go away. Unfortunately, she didn't have the stamina, or the control she normally had, so she tired quickly, and had to stop after about 5 minutes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, concern on his face.

She breathed deeply, wondering what to say. The worried look in his eyes just managed to piss her off more, and she decided to ignore Naruto's and Hana's wise words and take the option which she had stuck with for the past few years.

"Kiba, I don't want to see you any more. You acted like such an idiot, and I can't even believe how stupid and naïve you were. I'm going to request for you to be replaced on the Sozoku mission so, please just... just go away." she knew she couldn't look at him, or it would more than likely break the heart that she had trying to deny she had her whole life.

He was trying to put words together, but it just wasn't happening for him. He gave up and just walked out of the room, and Hitori took a very deep and long breath in, and slowly let it out, trying to pretend that it was her injuries making her chest hurt, and not what she had just done.

She would have to put it to get a replacement for Kiba, and now seemed like the best time. She checked herself out, assuring everyone that she would be fine to heal herself from now on, and went straight up to the Hokage's office.

As she reached up to knock on the door, Naruto's words resounded through her mind, and she ignored it and rapped on the door. Tsunade's voice bid her entry and she opened the door and stood a few paces in front of her desk, looking to see Naruto sitting next to her, with a confused look on his face.

"I'm sorry for the hassle, but I would like to request a replacement for Kiba on his mission." she said with a voice that took everything she had to not waver.

"Why is that? You seemed to doing fine with him. Did you tell him that you were on a mission?" Tsunade asked, not really wanting to bother finding a replacement, but if it meant that Hitori could complete her mission, she would figure something out.

"He is interfering with me completing my mission. I believe I'm on the brink of cracking the case, and I can't risk anything going wrong at this point." as she spoke she could see that Naruto was nowhere near impressed by this turn of events, and she knew it would take a few shouts of Ichiraku ramen to get him to forgive her.

"Okay. Whatever. I'll get...hmm..." she browsed through some notes on her desk and made a sound of relief when she found the right one. "How about I get the chuunin, Hideki to accompany you?"

"That will suffice. Thank you for your understanding." Hitori bowed, even though it hurt a bit to do so.

"Alright, I'll summon him and tell him to meet you at the village gates at dawn on Friday. Dismissed." Tsunade went back to speaking with Naruto about Hokage matters, even though now Naruto was just staring at Hitori's back as she walked out the door, shutting it behind her.

* * *

Kiba was in a daze as he walked home. He even bumped into a few people, not even being able to focus on where he feet were leading him. After about half an hour, he ended up at the door to his apartment building and he went instead, going slowly up the stairs to his floor and going through his front door without even realising he was doing it. He had intended to go and see his sister after he visited Hitori, but he would just do it later.

He sat down on his bed, Akamaru nudged his head against Kiba's hand, knowing that there was something wrong with his master. The young man barely even noticed the ninken until he stood in front of him and barked to get his attention. Akamaru looked at him as if to ask what was wrong and Kiba sighed sadly.

"She doesn't want to see me any more. I thought we might have had something really good going on, but I must have been wrong. I don't even know if she has any feelings for me. I just wanted to know that she was okay and tell her how much I like her, but..." he threw his hands up and put them over his face trying not to get more worked up over this.

For at least two hours, he just sat there giving himself some time to dwell in his misery. Then, he decided that was enough, and he took a deep breath and headed back to the hospital to see Hana and talk to her about it.

He walked back to the hospital leaving Akamaru at home and he went straight to Hana's room. She had been awake for about 3 hours now, and was able to eat and looked much better than Hitori had done at this stage. She knew something was wrong from the moment he walked in the room, and she felt sad, having a hunch at what this was about.

"Hey Hana. How are you feeling?" he said, trying to cover up most of his sadness, but he couldn't hide it from his big sister.

"I'm feeling better than you look. And that's saying something." she gave him a look that said 'Don't even try it'. "Is it Hitori?"

He nodded sadly, moving a chair next to her bed and sitting down and folding his arms on the bed and resting his head on them. The young Inuzuka was still in complete disbelief, and had no idea how to react or what to think. All he knew was that he felt fucking horrible.

"Talk to me, pup." Hana encouraged, hoping that he would open up to her as she stroked his hair soothingly.

"I went to see her a few hours ago, and she said she didn't want to see me any more, and that she was going to have me replaced on the mission. She said I acted like an naïve idiot, which I did, but all I wanted to do was apologise and tell her how I felt. I didn't even get the chance." his heart was breaking as he spoke, and tears began to form in his eyes.

"Aw, honey. I'm sorry to hear that. I wish there was something I could say to make you feel better. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be." she reached down as much as she could and hugged him, feeling so sorry for her brother.

"I don't know what to do Hana...I just know that...I love her"


	10. Healing

**Chapter 10 - Healing**

Hitori was laying in her own bed, dreading the next few days. She had about an hour until she had to leave for Sozoku with this chuunin named Hideki. She'd never met him before, but he would be briefed on the situation which would make her life so much easier.

This Sunday was Jinoichi's brother's birthday, and he lived in a village about three hours away, owned and run by the Tora, and he usually always went up and visited. So, that meant that on Sunday, it would only be Aisa and Hitori in the building. She had made a big plan to go and snoop for ledgers around the warehouse and if worse came to worse, she would break into his office and look around.

Basically, she was so sick to death of this mission, that she was ready to blow her cover, put a knife to the fat man's throat and make him tell her whatever she wanted to know, or just to scour the entire city until she found proof not caring about who was chasing her. She'd raze the whole city to the ground for evidence.

Gradually, she got up, had some toast and went through her normal routine, but at a much slower pace. She barely made it to the gates by dawn and she saw the guy who must be Hideki already waiting for her. Before she got closer, she took a few deep breaths to mentally prepare herself.

Hideki smiled at her and said good morning. He would probably only be about 19 or 20 years old, but he seemed polite and nice so far, so she responded with a polite greeting and said that they should set out to get to Sozoku on time.

On the way, she told him about her mission and what she was doing so he knew not to get in her way, and just to try and keep up the bodyguard act once they got into the city. She informed him of her plan, to strike this weekend while Jinoichi was away, and he said that if she needed any help to let him know, to which she politely declined, thinking quickly enough to say that she wanted Aisa protected if anything should go wrong, which she did.

She would do the shows and act normal over today and tomorrow, but then on Sunday, it would be all business. If she didn't find anything, she would have to clean up whatever mess she made and make sure that Jinoichi didn't suspect her role in all of it.

They stopped at the dango stall, where Hitori and Hideki made some simple small talk, just about normal shinobi, like who was your sensei, what sort of jutsu do you use etc, and she quickly realised that he was really, really funny. It seemed that he had this amazing ability to find humour in everything. Even though she tried to act fairly distant and uninterested, he was actually starting to make her laugh, which was shocking.

It didn't take long for them to be back on the road, and soon enough they arrived at Sozoku, where Hitori made fun of the city, by walking past everything building and saying it was either a strip club or brothel, even if there was signs out the front that clearly stated otherwise, and Hideki was laughing at her joke. They got to the club and Hitori let him in, making sure to remind him to call her Misaki from now on.

Aisa was behind the bar and grinned happily, but her smile faded into a look of utter confusion when she noticed an unfamiliar face walking in with Misaki, not Kiba and the ninken which would usually be galloping towards her happily. She came out from behind the bar, giving Misaki a look that said that she would be talking to her about this later, and introduced herself to Hideki and he stared at her, immediately infatuated with the stunning blonde before snapping out of it and introducing himself in return.

They went upstairs as Aisa went back behind a bar and poured the usual for herself and Misaki. Misaki decided to stay in Aisa's room and let Hideki have the other room to himself, since last time sharing a room with her 'bodyguard' didn't end well. He was shocked to see where he was staying and hugged Hitori in happiness, making her chuckle since she knew what he was so happy about.

Normally, a disgusting, cheap as piss and dirty as piss in was where shinobi had to stay, since their mission allowances didn't cover anything better, unless they wanted to dig into their own pockets and fork out more money to stay in a nicer place. After they dumped their bags, she went and introduced Hideki to Jinoichi, saying that Kiba had received an injury while training and Hideki had been looking after her in his place.

They went down to the bar where Misaki had her beer and double shot with Aisa, and Aisa poured Hideki a beer. As usual, they talked for a while as Aisa got everything ready for the night even though she was too busy checking out and flirting with Hideki, and soon enough Misaki said she was going upstairs to go sleep, to leave them be.

* * *

While she was performing that night, things just seemed so different when she looked over to the bar and saw Hideki there instead of Kiba. She struggled to get through the show without seeming like there was something wrong, and instead of staying up like she normally would with Aisa for a while after, she just went straight to bed, Aisa coming in a few hours later and climbing into bed next to her.

Saturday passed with a blur as well. It seemed like Hitori could stand in the middle of the room, and everything was happening at light speed around her. Aisa knew there was something wrong, but knew that if she wanted to tell her, she would.

After the performance, she went straight to bed again and Aisa hopped in a few hours later. The young woman wasn't sleeping most of the time, but just laying in bed, wallowing the misery she couldn't seem to drag herself out of. It was beginning to frustrate her as well.

Dawn on Sunday came all to quickly and after about 2-3 hours of drifting off to sleep for half an hour and waking up for five minutes before falling back to sleep, just from pure exhaustion, Hitori got up and went to grab some food, being careful not to wake Aisa in the process.

Jinoichi was just on his way out, as well, which worked great, since now she knew he was gone and she could get something to eat and go nuts for the day. She bid him goodbye and watched him on his way, before her blank, business expression came over her face. Food forgotten she went upstairs and got changed into her normal standard shinobi wear. She grabbed a jacket and put her mask in it, and went outside the club, heading in the direction of the warehouse.

Luckily, she was prepared for the security systems this time, and she didn't know how to disable them, but using her shinobi common sense she would just use her mask to hide her face from the surveillance cameras and just use genjutsu on the men standing guard. When she arrived on the rooftop, she cast the genjutsu seeing the men go a bit limp, but stay in the same position, as to not raise an alarm.

She made her way in and got a few samples of the drugs that the Tora had been transporting all over the country and into other countries, as well as an invoice for the deal that Misaki had been present for. Thankfully, there were no injuries this time and she got out unscathed, releasing the genjutsu when she was far enough away, and concealed her mask back inside her jacket and made her way back to the club.

On her way there, she noticed that the carriage Jinoichi was in was heading back towards the city. He would be at the club in all of a few minutes, since it was on the other side of the city, and she knew she had to hurry. She bolted as fast as she back to the club, not even bothering to go through the door, just leaping up through the second storey window into Aisa's room, waking her up and then heading into Hideki's room and getting him up and telling him what was going on.

"I've made my move, but Jinoichi is coming back into the city. We have to get out of here NOW! Aisa, grab everything you can carry, and get ready to run for your life. Hideki, grab my pack, I need to get the ledger I always see the fat fuck carrying around." she hurried and rushed them as much as she could before kicking Jinoichi's office door in.

On the desk was the brown ledger that looked better to her right now than anything else she had ever seen. She quickly flipped through a few pages, making sure it had the information she needed. She had struck gold, but they needed to go now. Aisa was getting her stuff together as quick as she could, but finally was confused enough to stop and ask what the hell was going on.

"Misaki! What the fuck is happening?" she yelled, having enough of the mystery.

"Aisa. Do you trust me?" she waited for a nod, and continued after. "Well, do you want to be stuck in this shit-hole of a city or do you want to come with me and never have to worry about everything you need to worry about here?" Hitori asked quickly, and without waiting for a response, grabbed all the bags she could carry, and handed them to Hideki, telling him to drop them on the scroll and see how far off Jinoichi was.

"Grab that last bag put it on this scroll, and when I'm done get on my back. I'm going to take you away from here." she said with a smile that begged Aisa to listen to her and do what she said as she unravelled a scroll that she pulled out from her pants pocket.

All the bags were placed on top except the one containing the drugs and the ledger, and Hideki recognised it as a storage scroll. Clearly, Hitori was ready for this to happen. Hitori used a bit of chakra to made a small cut on her thumb, and spread the blood on the scroll, made a few signs and the bags disappeared, making Aisa 'Oh' in amazement. Hitori rolled up the scroll and placed it back in her pocket.

They were finally ready.

Aisa climbed on her back, and held in her scream as she felt the falling sensation until they hit the ground with a tiny thud. Aisa went to climb down, but was told not to. Hideki took the evidence bag, having the least amount of weight to carry, and all of a few seconds later, they had already gotten far enough away from the club that Aisa sighed with relief.

Hitori and Hideki ran out of the city, Aisa bobbing up and down on Hitori's back, through the back way so they wouldn't be seen. Hitori was using chakra to keep up since Aisa's weight made it a bit difficult to run as fast as she normally could. Without any words, they kept going, not dropping the pace until they reached the dango stall, where they stopped for a few minutes so Hitori could explain what was going on while they had a breather.

"Aisa, I'm sorry to have deceived you. My name is Hitori and I'm a shinobi from Konoha, and I was employed by the Daimyo to bust the drug trafficking that the Tora was doing. All this time I've been observing what has been happening, how their business is conducted, who they make deals with and how they get past shinobi patrols and border control. I wish I could have told you earlier but I didn't want to risk ruining all that work I've done of the past few months." she explained, and drank half the contents of her water bottle in one go before continuing.

"I went to the Tora warehouse and grabbed some of product they've been selling and I got my hands on the ledger that Jinoichi usually always has with him, but luckily he didn't take it with him today since he was going up to his brother's place today. I've got all I need to get him punished, and now I don't have to go back there any more. Before we get too far away from Sozoku, I need to ask you something. Do you want to go back there, or would you like to live with me in Konoha?" Hitori slowed down for a minute to ask her, giving the blonde a minute to think, but she didn't even need one.

"Are you kidding me? Fuck Sozoku! I'd love to come and live with you! Let's go." the blonde said happily, and Hideki took Aisa on his back this time, even though Hitori protested, saying that her chakra enhanced strength would make it easier for her, but eventually she left it, knowing that they had stayed there too long.

Before they left, she walked up to the woman at the dango stall, and went to pass her some money as the sign that they had never passed through here, but she declined, saying that she wouldn't say anything to anyone about her favourite customer. The woman also asked if she was going to come back, and Hitori told her that she would definitely come back when she could, since she had the best dango around. Hitori bowed and then they were on their way again.

* * *

Finally they got back to Konoha, and Hideki put Aisa down, letting her take in the sight that was the hidden shinobi village of Konohagakure. Hitori knew that it wouldn't be as easy as letting her walk through the village walls and that Aisa would be allowed to stay and so did Hideki, so instead of putting everything down, all three of them went up to Hokage's office.

Luckily, they were able to go straight in and Tsunade looked a bit confused, and asked them what was going on. Hitori took a deep breath and hoped for the best results possible before she spoke.

"Hokage-sama. I've successfully completed my mission. I have evidence of the Tora's illegal actions in form of this," she put down one of the bags, and pulled out a bag containing the drugs that were being sold, and placed it on the Hokage's desk, "this invoice and this ledger, containing evidence of every deal that has been made throughout this year. I had hoped to find more, but just the things in this is more than enough."

"Good work, Hitori. This is very well done. You may also be asked to give a personal account of what you saw in Sozoku to the Daimyo, if he wishes it. So, who is the girl?" Tsunade asked, wondering what kind of excuse Hitori was going to come up with for her being here.

"This is Aisa. She worked in the club alongside me. I believe her account of what she saw could be very helpful, especially since she has been there for much longer than I had been undercover for. Also, I believe her life may have been in danger once Jinoichi realised what had happened. I was concerned that she may have been tortured into trying to giving information on my whereabouts. I would appreciate it if we could offer her sanctuary in Konoha." Hitori spoke confidently, but on the inside she was scared that Aisa might be turned away.

"I have no problem with her staying, as long as she does her part to help the village function, just like everyone else who lives here." Tsunade said, glad to see that Hitori was able to open up to this young girl.

"Does that mean I have to become a ninja?" Aisa asked Hitori quietly, making her laugh out loud.

"No, you don't have to do that. You will live with me, and you can get a job wherever you like, okay?" Hitori smiled more genuinely than she had in a long time, and thanked Tsunade before taking her leave, Hideki collecting his payment before catching up to Hitori and Aisa.

They made their way back to Hitori's place and she got the scroll out of her pocket and did the blood and hand signs routine again, making all the bags appear again with a puff of smoke. She gave Hideki his bags, thanking him sincerely for his help.

"Hey guys. You want to know how awesome I am?" Aisa said with a tone of mystery making both shinobi look at her curiously. They watched the small girl lift what seemed to be a very heavy bag off the scroll, and unzip it to reveal bottle after bottle after bottle of top shelf, very expensive alcohol. Then she opened another sectioned, revealing a large stack of money, which would add up to at least a few thousand.

"I've been stealing it all for months, waiting for the day I had somewhere else to go." she pulled out a bottle, cracked it open and took a mouthful before handing it to Hitori, who had a large mouthful and then handed it to Hideki.

"I think this means that we'll be having a good night." Hitori said and laughed as she flopped down on the lounge, and her two friends did the same.

* * *

_One Month Later_

Hitori was walking in the city gates, just getting back from a quick 2 day mission. She strolled over to the Hokage's office, reported in and collected her payment before heading home. She unlocked the door, and made her presence known. She knew Aisa would be here, since it was here day off, but she didn't hear anything in response.

She walked towards Aisa's room, and opened the door to find an unexpected scene that made her turn around and shut the door just as quickly as she'd opened it. Hitori saw Aisa _and_ Hideki, on the bed. Naked. Doing things she didn't want to know about.

Aisa came out a moment later, a dressing gown barely covering her, and Hideki came out with a pair of boxers on. They both had flushed cheeks, messy hair and were breathing heavily signalling that they were doing what Hitori thought they were doing. Hitori just laughed at their appearance and shook her head.

"Sorry I disturbed. But yeah, um, I'm going to Naruto and Hinata's place for dinner so I'll leave you pair to it. I'll be back later." Hitori walked to her bedroom to quickly change clothes, already hearing giggling from the next room.

She strolled over to Naruto's house, knowing that she'd be a bit early since it was only 5pm, but didn't really have anything else to do in the mean time. She knocked on the front door, and Hinata answered, greeting her happily with a hug and letting her inside. They walked to the living room, where Naruto was laying on the couch, dead to the world with drool hanging out of one corner of his mouth.

"Naruto. Wake up. Hitori is here." Hinata's soft voice carried over to him, but failing to wake him.

"This is how you wake him up." she did a simple hand sign, and summoned a tiny bit of lightning natured chakra to her hand, using it to poke Naruto, therefore zapping him lightly and waking him up.

He leapt to his feet, landing on the coffee table in a fighting stance, ready for battle while Hitori and Hinata laughed hysterically at him. Naruto quickly realised what happened, seeing the devilish smirk on Hitori's face and knowing she had lightning natured chakra.

Chuckling, knowing that they had gotten him pretty good, he wiped the drool off his face and sat back down on the couch and Hinata sat next to him, and Hitori sat on the other smaller lounge. The man looked at the clock on the wall and realised that Hitori was early.

"You're a bit early. That's why I was having a sleep." he asked in the form of a statement.

"Let's just say I walked in on something a little disturbing back at my place." she had a funny look on her face as her mind decided to bring up the mental image she was trying to block out.

"Was it Hideki and Aisa?" Hinata asked with a hint of a chuckle and a little smirk on her face.

"For the most part, it was a combination of the two. If you get my meaning. I knew those guys have been going out for a while, but I'm guessing they've just been doing _that_ while I'm not at home." Hitori smiled, being truly happy for Aisa. Hideki was a nice guy and they suited each other very well.

"Probably. Before Hinata moved out here, we had to wait until Hanabi went on missions, 'cause she lived in the same block." Naruto blurted out, making Hinata blush scarlet.

"Naruto!" she hissed quietly and tapped him on the shoulder, being a bit embarrassed.

"Don't worry Hinata. We're all human. All of us in the room have had sex before. It's nothing new." the older woman said, with a chuckle at Hinata's embarrassment. She had come out of her shell so much since she had gotten together with Naruto, but she was still easily embarrassed.

"Yeah, speaking of that. Have you spoken to Kiba?" Naruto inquired, catching Hitori off-guard, and he knew it.

"I haven't, no. Why do you ask?" Hitori was a little confused as to why this was being brought up. Hinata looked at Naruto as if to say 'No, just leave it be.' but of course Naruto was completely oblivious to his girlfriend's look and just kept on going making her sigh quietly to herself.

"Well, we ran into him at Ichiraku the other day and he asked me how you were going. He said that he still cares about you, and wants to thank you for saving Hana, but he was scared that you would literally tear him a new ass-hole if you saw him." Naruto said casually, even though most people might say such things with a little more tact.

"Fair enough. And no, I wouldn't. I don't know. I thought he'd be over me by now." she said with a slightly frustrated tone, trying to cover up the fact that it upset her to hear that he still cared.

"Of course not. He's still ass over head in love with you. But anyway, doesn't matter. I just thought I'd let you know." Naruto brushed off the subject, not wanting to upset his friend, and changed the topic to a happier note. "Oh, and I'll be named Rokudaime Hokage in two weeks." he grinned his fox-like grin and Hinata smiled happily next to him.

"Seriously? That's awesome. You better give me good missions." Hitori said with a mischievous smirk and nodded her head encouragingly.

"Pfft, you'll get what you are given!" Naruto retorted with a laugh.

"Ah, you suck already!" Hitori quipped in return, laughing as well.

The conversation continued and dinner was ready about an hour later, and they all stuffed themselves full, and Hitori thanked them and took her leave, ready to go to bed. She got home, and opened the front door, expecting find Hideki and Aisa there, but she found two more as well. The other two presences was a man only recently mentioned earlier that night, and his four-legged companion who was so happy to see her he nearly bowled her over before she even got in the door.

Inuzuka Kiba, Hideki and Aisa were sitting in the living room and having drinks over a game of poker. Hitori gave a brief hello and walked straight into her bedroom. She heard Aisa excuse herself for a minute and stared at the doorway until the blonde appeared in it, glaring daggers at her and she glared them right back.

"Seriously, this shit is driving me nuts. All you've done is mope around here for the past month, and I think I'm going to end up strangling you. I invited Kiba here tonight so you could at least talk to him about what happened. You don't have to be all in love with him and have a happy ending, but he's a good guy and he deserves much more than you gave him. Okay? There will be no arguing this. I'm going to stay at Hideki's and you pair can get do whatever you need to do." Aisa commanded with a voice that Hitori had never heard from her before, so she figured that was her 'I'm-totally-serious' voice.

For a lack of not knowing what else to say after receiving a serious scolding from the blonde, who's bad side Hitori just realised, she definitely did not want to be on, she blinked a few times before nodding and watched her walk away and heard her tell Kiba that he could go in and talk if he wanted to.

She heard footsteps, and knew that it was Kiba's way of letting her know he was walking to her bedroom. Grey eyes were shut, and pale-skinned hands were covering her face as she sensed Kiba in the doorway. With a nearly silent sigh, she lifted her head up and looked at him, seeing the uncertainty on his face.

Before she said anything, she recalled the words of both Naruto and Hana echoed through her mind.  
 _"Don't deny yourself something that might make you happy."  
"I hope that you might care the same way for him, because you seem to make him happy."  
"You should know by now that shinobi need to try and have a good personal life while they can. Having __someone to come home to, who loves you no matter what you did that day is a good feeling."_  
"We are loyal partners, and we care deeply for the people closest to us. Every last one of us would defend what we want to the death."

It saddened her deeply, and Kiba watched her from the doorway, seeing her internal struggle. He didn't want to make things harder for her or upset her by being there, so he decided to leave her in peace. He'd get over it...eventually.

"I'm sorry to bother you like this. But, thank you, so much for saving Hana." he scratched the back of his head nervously as he spoke. "Yeah, so...I'll...I'll leave you be. Thank you again." he spun on the ball of one foot so his back was facing her, and went to walk, but her voice stopped him.

"Kiba..." she said simply and so quietly he barely heard it. But he did hear what she really wanted to say with that one word. ' _Please don't go._ '

He watched her, as she looked off to the side, chewing on her lip nervously, and he could almost see both sides of her brain arguing in the silvery-grey depths of her eyes. He knew she wanted to speak, but it seemed like she was trying to figure out what to say, and just trying to build up the courage. He gave her the time she needed. She took a deep breath, and he mentally prepared himself for whatever she had to say, expecting her to just apologise and tell him that she didn't have feelings for him.

"I'm sorry I was so horrible to you. I wasn't even angry that you had a go at me about the whole shinobi thing. I just used that as an excuse to turn you away because I was so terrified of opening up to you. I was more terrified than I have ever felt. Even when I've nearly died, I've never been that scared. Getting a kunai through the gut is no problem, but I couldn't stand the thought of being emotionally hurt by someone I had come to care and have feelings for. That's why I was a bitch, I'm sorry. Now please leave me be so I find something to hang myself with." she spoke quickly, since she was trying to get as much as possible and also because she didn't really want him to hear it because it was embarrassing.

She kept her eyes closed the whole time she spoke to cover up the tears welling up in them that she was trying to pretend weren't there. This man had made her walls that she had spent years building crumble enough in such a short time, and he was doing it again without even speaking. She covered her face with her hands, and waited for Kiba to react.

The Inuzuka was dumbstruck. That was certainly not what he expected to hear from the woman. He watched her, seeing the first tear fall down her cheek from underneath her hands, and land on the floor. Even though he wasn't really sure that it was the right thing to do, he walked over and knelt down in front of her, and gently took a hold of her hands in his own, moving them away from her face.

Hitori turned away from him the moment her hands fell away from her face, not wanting him to see her crying, especially since she couldn't even remember the last time she had cried. He let her hands go and carefully wrapped them around her, not wanting to push her too fast.

Tears fell faster from her eyes knowing that there was no way she could stay away from him now. She had been trying to deny for so long that she cared for him, and it took her finally admitting it to Kiba himself for her to fully realise the depth of her feelings for the man.

For at least 5 minutes, he just held her there, until the wooden floor under his knees began to hurt too much. He pulled back and moved to sit next to her on the bed, rubbing his knees before looking at her. Her eyes were still red, even though she'd stopped crying a few minutes ago, and there was still tear track on her cheeks.

Smiling, he leant forward and softly kissed her cheek, making her blush. She laid down and moved further up her bed to lay on her pillow, buggered from all this emotional stuff, and from her mission. Kiba joined her and put his arms around her smaller form.

They fell asleep together as if it was something they'd been doing their whole lives...


End file.
